Sister Knights Episode X: Into The Unknown
by Night Fury Warrior
Summary: The Knights have been through a lot, and the pressure is finally getting to them. Now they have to go fight a new war against their own former-allies, and a couple of unlikely new heroes emerge in the Dream Realm.


**G'day! It's that time again, Sister Knights Episode X is here! Literally finished IX last night but haven't uploaded it yet (For reasons explained in it) but anyway. Another fairly long episode!**

**We have some…interesting events planned this time, and it's going to be a totally different format which poses a huge challenge on me. We'll see how it goes. But I am super excited because I finally get to stop hiding secrets I've kept for a few years now, especially revolving around a specific character from all the way back in the first trilogy! I mean…I do still have other secrets from first trilogy characters that aren't revealed yet…but hey, this is the biggest.**

**Enjoy!**

_**Prologue: Heroes Always Die**_

_**Elsa Arendelle's POV:**_

**Sleep**

**34 ABY; 2071 Earth Time**

"Your Majesty, we have a problem," said the Arendellian admiral that had just come up to me on the bridge of the _Sword of Arendelle_.

"What is it?" I asked, the rest of the Virtcast around me listening in.

"Your team has been summoned to Demland by an unidentified being," he reported.

I glanced back at Chris and the others.

"Could be a trap?" I figured.

"Perhaps, but come on. Demland? That place is a tropical island surrounded by Ocean Demons. It's unlikely anyone would anger the Ocean Demons by starting a fight there," Chris replied.

"It is a risky move if it is a trap, but I mean, we're all pretty old now. They probably don't expect us to put up much of a fight," Kairi pointed out.

"Heyyy, who you callin old?" Vestara teased.

"She has a point though, we're all in our 70s. We still have fight in us, but not as much as we used to," Anna said.

"Well, I say we head down there and see what's up," Chris suggested.

"I'm with him," Ves nodded.

"Alright. Prepare the _Night Slicer_, we're going to Demland," I commanded.

**!=-{+}-=!**

We soon entered Earth's atmosphere and cruised down to the rather large crescent-shaped tropical island known as Demland, out in the middle of the ocean almost equally as far south of Europia as it was east of Amerianta and west of Azreia.

"Ready?" I asked. Everyone nodded, ensuring their weapons were on their belts and they were ready in-case things went south.

We landed at the designated coordinates and disembarked from the shuttle.

Looking around, we didn't see anyone. However, that soon changed when a sickeningly familiar British-accented seductive-sounding voice rang out across the clearing.

"Long time no see~! Looks like you lot grew old. How sad."

The figure of a blonde girl who hadn't seemed to age a single day since we last saw her jumped down into the clearing, and we stared in shock.

"No way… We killed you! Twice!" Vestara growled.

"Yes, it seems you did. But I'm sure you remember the first time you killed me back in America. I made you a promise, didn't I, little Ves? A promise I intend to keep," the girl smirked.

I glanced toward Vestara, who had a slight look of terror on her face. She shook her head, bringing herself back.

"It doesn't matter how many times you come back, we will kill you again and again. You'll never win, _Elaine_," the name echoed around the clearing from the pure poison Vestara put behind the word.

Elaine Mills seductively walked over to her, running her hand along Vestara's cheek. "Oh my dear, I'm glad to see you so eager to play with me again, but do be patient. After all, I have others here to satisfy as well, don't I?" she gave a wink over to Chris.

Vestara's lightsabre appeared in her hand and ignited, but before the blade ever appeared, Elaine's hand was over the weapon, absorbing the energy with tutaminis.

"You really are impatient to get started. Fine, I'll play with you first. But not like this, you were far cuter before," Elaine smirked. She gave Vestara a quick kiss on the lips before pushing the half-Sith girl back and causing her to crash into the _Night Slicer_.

"Ves!" Chris called out, igniting his own lightsabre. But Elaine vanished.

I heard another grunt from Vestara and looked over to see Elaine pulling her to her feet. "Much better," the British Sith noted as we all realised what she had done to Vestara.

Vestara looked totally different. She didn't look like a 73-year-old woman anymore. She was instead…a 16-year-old girl again.

"Oh but it won't do if only one of you is attractive again," she reached out towards the rest of us, and suddenly I felt a weird tingling sensation. Next moment I noticed everyone back to their ages in 2014, and felt my own body become a lot more energetic and youthful, making me realise I was 20 again.

"You realise you just gave us the advantage," smirked a 17-year-old Kairi.

"Well, I can't deny how nice it is to be dominated from time to time. But I'm afraid I'm still the one in charge here. You see, I've grown in a different sense to all of you. I've grown stronger. Doesn't matter how many of you there are, I'm the dom and you're the subs," she explained.

_I really fucking hate how everything she says is a sexual innuendo._

I sent an ice blast at her, but she simply absorbed it into her hand.

She then proceeded to send it right back at me.

I dove out of the way and saw Chris rush in with his lightsabre at the ready. Elaine ignited her own red lightsabre after knocking Vestara back again, blocking him with ease. Running his blade off to the side, she then deflected the incoming lightsabre of Sarah, before twirling around and bringing it straight up.

I watched in horror as the blade ran up Anna's front, cutting deep. My sister fell back onto the ground and stopped moving. I couldn't even see her trying to breathe.

Rage filled me as I spawned the Fangs of Iceolation and charged at the Sith.

She kicked out the legs from underneath Sarah, causing her to fall, and drove the red lightsabre through Sarah's chest.

The Jedi's lifeless body hit the ground with a thud.

I swung at Elaine, and she blocked. I tried again and again, but was blocked every time. Kairi's keyblade came up behind her to run her through, but a punch toward me and a spin brought Elaine's lightsabre straight across Kairi's chest. The princess's face contorted in pain before she also fell to the ground.

Elaine continued her spin and roundhouse kicked Clarissa in the head, knocking her unconscious.

I attempted to get back up, but Elaine stopped me with Force Lightning. Kiarna and Chris came in to stop her, and she ducked under one blade while blocking the other. She kicked Kiarna's legs out from under her and clearly used the Force to continue Chris's momentum as his sabre went straight into the young girl's chest. Elaine's sabre then proceeded to cut Chris's legs off, causing a loud yelp of pain as he fell to the ground.

I tried to get up, but found I was unable to move as my muscles were still spasming from the electrocution.

_This is it… She's gonna kill us all… The Virtcast are done…_

Another lightsabre ignited, and I noticed Vestara shakily standing up.

"You…bitch…" she growled with a low tone.

"It's as I said. I will kill you," Elaine responded, sounding completely serious for once.

Vestara tried to attack, but she was so shaken up from watching all her friends be killed that it was an easy move for Elaine to simply cut her hand off.

"You should have never messed with me, Virtcast. Now you've paid the price," Elaine quietly said.

"You monster…" groaned Chris on the ground beside me.

Elaine simply gave a teasing wink back at him, before claiming the defeated Vestara's lips with her own. Her lightsabre reignited straight through Vestara's heart while she kissed her.

Chris and I watched on helplessly as his wife fell to the ground, lifeless.

"It's such a pity. We could have had so much fun if you had just been a good little boy back then and followed my orders," Elaine smirked, now standing over Chris.

"Never would have happened in a thousand years," he spat, a bit of blood coming out of his mouth.

"How upsetting,"

The red blade cut straight through his neck, his head rolling and coming to rest near me. She looked over at me.

"It's time for the Virtcast to end," was all she said before her blade cut straight through me.

_**Sector 1: Disruptions to Peace**_

_**Stella Khai's POV:**_

**Wake**

**40 ABY; 2077 Earth Time**

Thirteen years after we defected from the Jedi and defeated Estella Noral and things were surprisingly alright. We had expected backlash from the Jedi Order, but they had left us alone as long as we didn't get in their way, though I think that was partly thanks to the Virtcast.

Speaking of though, about six years ago, most of our parents in the Virtcast were killed. We first heard it from the Arendelle Navy that they had gone to Demland and their signal was lost, and when we returned to the Wake, we found all but one of them to be dead even there. The one that survived returned to us in the Sleep a few days later, though we were shocked to see she was 15 years old again.

Clarissa, the only surviving member of the Virtcast, explained that they had been ambushed by one of their old enemies; Elaine Mills. One-by-one she had killed them all, but for some unknown reason, she never killed Clarissa. Lara was at least relieved that her mother was still alive, though the fact that she was now 17 years older than her own mother was rather unnerving for everyone at first, but having lost the rest of her team, she has since joined the Sleeping Knights.

Prior to all that though, we finally ended the Yuuzhan Vong war with the Sekot Accords in 29 ABY, and the year before that the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances (Galactic Alliance for short) was formed out of the ashes of the New Republic.

Closer to home and Savara had become the Queen of Arendelle in 27 ABY, and a majority of us have gotten married in the years following the war, with me finally marrying Felix in 30 ABY, Sally and Connor marrying that same year, Savara marrying a guy named Hiroyuki Konno in 2068 (31 ABY) (though she got divorced in 2070 (33 ABY) and remarried to James Taav'rell in 35 ABY), Lara and Matt marrying in 32 ABY and Rika and Shaun marrying in 33 ABY.

Styra Khai had been taken out of the Jedi Order by her mother as soon as all the Younglings left Shelter at the end of the war and had been attending school in Arendelle while also training as a Sleeping Knight. She had even met a young Imperial boy named Grent Pellaeon, who she later got into a relationship with and has been dating ever since. I also noticed something else with Styra, but we'll get into that later.

Some of us had also had kids in the past 10 years. Felix and I had a daughter named Crystal Khai here in Australia back in 2068, and more recently a son in the Sleep named Blake Calnore just last year in 39 ABY.

Jane and Sonia's daughter, Kirah Borne was born in Qeios in 33 ABY, with Savara's daughter with Hiroyuki being born that same year of 2070 in Australia; Melody Arendelle. (She shared Savara's last name because she was born after they got divorced)

Rika and Shaun had a daughter in the Wake in 2073 too, named Kyra Bailey, and lastly, Sally and Connor's daughter was born in Hanamura in 37 ABY, named Savannah Skywalker.

As you might have guessed, we were all taking it easy in the Sleep. Felix and I had started living on Corellia for a few reasons, and while a majority of the Sleeping Knights remained in Qeios and Arendelle, Sally and Connor were living in Hanamura. I heard Lara and Matt were thinking of moving to Coruscant at some stage too. Though in the Wake, most of us remained where we've always been with the only difference being Shaun moving to Australia to live with Rika. He had, of course, already moved to Qeios in the Sleep after becoming a Qeian Royal Guard for Sonia and Jane along with his sister and a few other former Montana Royal Guards.

The old Queen of New Arndel, Saria Halmore died of old age just last year. Her daughter, Chloe Halmore had become Queen the year before. Another person who died of old age was Rivatha back in 2068.

I should also note that Jane officially became Queen of Qeios alongside Sonia in 28 ABY.

It wasn't all great news though, as just earlier this year, a Second Galactic Civil War had broken out between the Galactic Alliance and the Confederacy. It was a slight surprise to us when the Jedi left the GA too, forming the Jedi Coalition. (At this point we forgot to pay attention to the Star Wars timeline because we figured things would be changing now that we had stepped away from the Jedi, and due to our actions afterwards. We didn't expect any of what happened even though it all started out similar to the books. I later admitted to my mistake after what you're about to see as we could have avoided quite a bit of drama had we realised what was going on…)

**!=-{+}-=!**

Things were a bit less stressful (debatably) for us at the moment though as I ran hard into the guy that had just caught the ball from Sonia's kick. I knocked him to the ground, holding him down for a moment before backing off and letting him give the ball to his teammate.

_First tackle._

They passed it to one of their other guys who ran straight at our defence line. Shaun, Matt and Jane swamped him as he hit the line, knocking him down. I cringed slightly as Jane's arm landed on the back of his head, smacking his face into the ground, but I also knew he could take it. We had been doing this for the last nearly 80 minutes, and all of us had been through quite a few heavy hits by now.

_Second tackle._

The ball was once again in play a moment later as a girl dummy passed towards another teammate, tricking Tarev and getting past him before Felix dove at her, grabbing at her shirt and slowing her down enough for Savara to crash into her and force her to the ground.

_Third tackle._

The ball was rolled back and tossed once more. At this point we were just entering our own side of the field, so we had to do our best to keep their advancements to a minimum.

The guy ran towards a gap in our defence, but was quickly pulled down by both Sally and myself. I slightly headbutted Sally but we brushed it off, getting up again.

_Fourth tackle…_

This time the player barely gained any distance before I was on top of him with Felix and Jane, our combined strength pulling him back a good three metres before getting off.

_Fifth. Now's our chance._

Sure enough, the ball was passed back to their team and kicked high into the air.

I ran towards where it would be coming down, another player from the enemy team right on my heels. I jumped, trying to get higher than the other guy, and successfully caught the ball about 25 metres from our try-line.

I was tackled to the ground by the guy next to me as I landed though. He got up after a second and backed off. I got up and made sure Rika was behind me before placing the ball on the ground and rolling it between my legs. She picked it up and passed it backwards to Felix who caught it masterfully.

He was about to hit the line of people the opposing team was trying to stop him with when he passed it behind him to Shaun. The American successfully caught it and ran as much as he could. He got tackled to the ground before he could pass the ball again though.

_Second tackle._

The opposing team got off Shaun, allowing him to roll the ball behind him to Tarev, who then passed it back to me, on the other side of the field. I managed to catch it and sprinted toward the opposing try-line while most of their team was spread apart. I got to about 10 metres out before I was tackled to the ground.

_Third tackle._

I got up, rolled the ball behind me and smirked as Savara picked it up and passed it to Lara. Lara was almost immediately crowded so she passed it back to Sally at the 15-metre line. Sally ran for 5 metres before passing it over to Jane as she got clobbered and crashed into the ground. Jane managed to get almost to the try-line but had to pass it back to me as she got blocked. I caught the ball and dove over the line, successfully scoring a try.

"Oh, come on, that was a forward pass between Sally and Jane," complained one of the opposing team members.

"Nah, I was behind her by half a metre. It wasn't a forward pass," Jane said.

I looked over to the referee, and she nodded. "Can confirm, the pass between Sally and Jane was legal," she commented.

"Fuck!" groaned the guy that complained, probably annoyed that he got caught earlier for being offside.

I just chuckled as I brought the ball back out to about 20 metres, placed it on the ground and stepped back for the conversion.

I took a deep breath, before running to the ball and kicking it. I watched as it went perfectly between the goalposts.

"Fuck yeah!" I celebrated.

"And with that, time's up. Sleeping Knights win!" the girl called out.

"Hell yeah we win! No one beats us when it comes to footy," Jane smirked.

"You know it, babe," Sonia agreed.

"Only took a few broken noses, I'm impressed," smirked Matt, still trying to hold the cotton bud to his bleeding nose after he had been tackled and smacked his nose against his opponent's shoulder before hitting the ground so hard he said he had blurry vision afterwards.

"Sorry about that, Matt!" apologised the girl who had tackled him.

"Yeah nah no worries, Charlotte. That's rugby, if you don't get hurt, you're doing it wrong," he smirked.

"Definitely rougher than our football," Shaun commented.

"That's because we're not wimps who have to wear protective gear," Rika teased.

I just chuckled as I poured my water bottle out over myself. My jersey was already soaked in sweat, so I didn't really care if it made some of the boys stare at me.

I looked down at myself to see not only was my blue jersey a complete mess with both grass-stains and a few blood-stains from some wounds I had sustained during the game, but my arms and legs were rather scuffed up and dirty, and I even had a few grazes on my knees and elbows. Looking around though, everyone else was the same.

"Well, looks like we gotta hit the showers before we head home," Sonia noted.

"Sounds like a plan," the girl from before nodded.

We had spent most of the day at the sports field in Beerwah, playing some matches of rugby league and other activities with some old friends from school.

I followed the rest of the girls to the showers where we all hurriedly discarded our sweat-soaked -and in some cases, blood-stained- tops and grass-covered shorts. There were multiple sighs of content and relief when everyone got under the refreshing water of the shower to clean themselves off.

"Nothing like a hot day playing rugby, ay," smirked Rika next to me.

"Bloody oath. But I'll stick to EGO for a while, I think I got a bit too sunburnt out here," I replied, realising how red my arms were.

"That's your fault, Cuz. You spend too much time inside," Lara teased.

"Oh yeah? You're one to talk, Miss 'Always-on-my-phone' girl," I returned serve.

"At least I'm getting some sun," she defended.

"She does have you there, Stel," Rika agreed.

"And yet _your_ husband is the tenth top player on the Australasian server of Emberguard," I grinned, turning to Rika.

"Uhuh, and who's the top player on the Australasian server? Oh right, Black Rock Shooter, the girl who has won _three_ years of the International Showdown event. I get that you're sponsored and get paid for it, but still," she smirked.

"Meanwhile, let's not forget that Felix is third, Sonia's fourth and Jane's sixth on that server," Sally butted in.

"I think we've just proven that we all have way too much time on our hands," I giggled.

"You're definitely the worst of us. You still manage to play a lot of GGO and SAO while keeping top player in EGO. I think you need to get some action," came Jane's voice from behind me. Before I could react, she had wrapped her arms around me from behind and began groping me as I tried to squirm out of her grasp.

"Jaaannnee!" I involuntarily moaned.

"Lewd…" Lara whispered, glancing at what was happening.

"Alright girls, save it for a not-so-public place," smirked Sonia, dragging her wife off me.

_Thank you, Sonia…_

"And for your info, Jane, I do get action," I huffed.

All the girls gave me pervy looks and I realised what I had just said.

"_Well fuck me I guess…_" I sighed to myself.

"I mean, if you want," Rika winked.

"Not what I fucking meant," I glared at her, but couldn't stop myself from giggling.

We eventually finished in the showers and started to head home.

**!=-{+}-=!**

After Felix and I had finally gotten home from having to pick up Crystal from school, I collapsed onto the bed, exhausted.

"That was a tiring day," my husband smiled as he laid down next to me.

"Tell me about it," I sighed. I turned to face him. "But it _was_ fun,"

"That it was," he chuckled. He pulled me in close, and I rested against his chest.

We laid there for a while before Felix got up and went to make dinner for Crystal. When she eventually went to bed about an hour later, Felix returned, and I snuggled up to him again.

"Love you, Stel," he whispered.

"I love you too, Felix," I smiled as I fell asleep in Felix's arms.

**Sleep**

I ran.

I ran as fast as I could.

A loud squawk echoed through the night. I looked up to see the two, winged creatures of darkness following me above the trees, silhouetted by the remnants of this world's moon.

But they weren't the only ones following, which I was reminded of constantly by the grunts and howls of the creatures behind me.

I caught a glimpse of movement against the stars and saw the _Night Fury_ flying towards me.

_Thank you, Felix and Rika._

The shuttle started shooting at the creatures above, but the two bird-like things were manoeuvrable, and avoided most of the shots. One of them was hit, but the other got close to the shuttle and attacked.

It hit the engines and an explosion occurred.

"NOO!"

The _Night Fury_ went down and exploded in a fireball in the distance.

I slowed my running to a halt, shocked. The howls got louder.

I looked behind me just-in-time to see a wolf-like creature jump on me. I screamed, a blood-curdling scream.

I knew I was dead, but I was suddenly away from my body? I heard my own scream in the forest down below, as I was on a cliff edge. Next to me was a girl, clad in red and black with a cape and a hood.

"Stella…" she said with a young-sounding high-pitched voice.

"Stella," she said again, but this time I thought I heard Felix's voice too.

"Stella!" Felix yelled.

**Sleep (Actual)**

I was shaken awake by Felix, his now grey eyes shining in the morning light.

I was sweating and still felt panicked.

I hugged Felix tightly.

"Shh, it's okay Stel, it's okay. It was only a dream," he said.

"Mummy, are you okay?" I heard Crystal's small voice as she climbed up on the bed beside me.

"Yeah… Mummy's okay… Just had a bad dream is all," I told the 9-year-old girl, trying to calm my breathing and bring my heart rate down.

Felix looked a little worried, but I gave him a weak smile. "I'll be fine. I'll come out and make breakfast in a moment," I whispered.

"Alright. I'll go wake up Blake," he nodded. "Come on, Crystal. Let's go get your brother," he offered his hand to the small girl, who took it after looking at me for a second longer.

'_Are you okay, Stella?'_ Amea's voice was a comfort for me as I got myself under control.

_Yeah, I'm fine. Nothing more than a dream. Hopefully._

'_Okay… But you should come back to Earth and take some time off to relax, I'll get Kaitlyn and Kadmiel to run things here and take care of Yoshimi for a while and we can hang out, kay?'_

I smiled at the offer. _Okay. It's a promise._

Spending some time with Amea sounded good, though I did secretly hope I could see her daughter, Yoshimitsu again. Last time I saw the little half-Angel, she was only a year old. Now she'd be about 4 by my memory. From what I had been told by Amea, she had grown her wings in the past year. I was interested to see the little girl with her new angel wings, courtesy of her angel father that Amea had married in 35 ABY named Kadmiel.

_I remember when she first said he was an angel; I didn't think she meant that he was a literal angel. I was very surprised to see him unfurl pure white angel wings in front of me._

_**32 ABY; 2069 Earth Time**_

"_Hey Stella-nee-chan!" called Amea._

"_Hey Amea!" I smiled. "Oh? Who's this?"_

"_This is Kadmiel. My new boyfriend," she grinned as she stepped aside, and a blond man stood in front of me. "He's an angel!"_

"_An angel huh? Well, glad he treats you right, otherwise I'd have to kick his arse," I smirked at the man._

"_No, I mean he is a literal angel," Amea stated._

_Suddenly, pure white angel wings appeared on Kadmiel's back._

"_WHAT THE FUCK?!"_

"_Heh, told ya," she teased._

**40 ABY; 2077 Earth Time**

Chuckling at the memory, I got out of bed and put some clothes on, before heading into the kitchen to make breakfast.

Crystal was in the living room of our small Corellian apartment, playing with her toys alongside a 1-year-old Blake.

Felix came into the kitchen to help, and I immediately gave him something to do.

"Oh, I'll probably go back to Earth soon and spend some time with Amea. You reckon you can take care of Crystal and Blake until then?" I asked.

"Yeah, no worries. As much as Crystal can be a handful at times, I can handle them," he nodded, smirking.

"Hey at least it's been easier since Crystal began entering the Dream Realm," I pointed out.

"Sure has been. Sucks to be Rika and Shaun though, Kyra's got another few years," he chuckled.

"Yeah. Fortunately though, I hear our little Princess of Arendelle is now entering the Sleep,"

"Mhm, Melody is 7 so that makes sense. I think Jane and Sonia were the smart ones though. Kirah's been no problem considering they only have to take care of her here and they have a bunch of servants to do so when they're not here,"

"Same goes for Sally and Connor, except Connor doesn't come from our world so he can take care of Savannah when Sally's in the Wake,"

We quickly finished making breakie and fed the two kids, before I went out since it was my turn to do our little mission.

A reason we were on Corellia for the last year was that there had been rumours of a dangerous underground anti-GA movement. Normally, this sort of thing would just be cast aside, or even dealt with by the Galactic Alliance Guard. However, Corellia was now a part of the Confederation. So really, the entire planet was against the GA. We could hide easily by simply making our allegiances to anyone unknown, that way the Confederation had no idea whether we were their allies, GA allies, or Jedi Coalition allies.

Hell, for all they know the Earth Alliance could have totally separated and become a fourth faction in the war, we weren't exactly playing a huge role this time.

Another reason we were called in was that this had ended up being a very dangerous crime syndicate using Force Sensitives as soldiers. If they got out, they could cause some problems.

I drove my speeder to my usual hideout near the syndicate's base and nestled in to watch for the day, awaiting any chance I might get to do something.

But…

I sensed a presence behind me and reacted quickly. Within the next second, I had a young teenage girl in a chokehold.

Without making a sound, she quickly tapped my arm as a rather panicked sign to release her.

I let the girl go, but kept my guard up. She fell to her knees, catching her breath.

"Who are you?" I asked.

The girl turned to me and started writing out Aurebesh letters in the air.

"Millie?"

She nodded.

"Are you unable to talk?"

She once again nodded, this time moving her arms about seemingly randomly. But I quickly realised it was sign language.

_Glad I learnt that after school…_

What she signed I managed to translate to "Yes… I am mute,"

Now that I got a good look at her, I could tell she had likely spent most of her life on the streets. What interested me though were her deep blue eyes, and black hair done in short twin-tails.

I gave the young girl a reassuring smile. "My name's Stella. Why were you sneaking up on me?"

She seemed hesitant to answer, but started signing again anyway. "I was told to bring you to the others,"

"Oh? Others?" I enquired. She simply pointed down to the hideout I had been watching. I looked at her in surprise. "You're…with the underground syndicate?"

She gave a small annoyed huff, rolling her eyes. Out of her pocket, she pulled a small lightsabre hilt. Igniting the blue blade, she started cutting into the ground. I realised she was writing something in Aurebesh. When she was done, I read it. It was one word.

"Jedi… Wait, you mean that 'anti-GA crime syndicate' we've been keeping an eye on…are Jedi?"

Millie nodded.

"…what…"

_**Sector 2: A Chuunibyou's Dream**_

_**Yuko Masuda's POV:**_

**Wake**

"Masuda-san, would you like to come hang out with us after school?" asked Riko.

I slightly groaned at how she still didn't seem to realise this form as the one they call 'Masuda Yuko' is but a temporary vessel, and that was not who I am.

_Silly mortal._

"Unfortunately, I, The Winter Mage, have too much business to attend to and as such cannot grace you with my presence after school," I said.

She simply sighed, shaking her head.

"You know, we're about to enter our senior years. You should probably stop acting all chuunibyou before you embarrass yourself at our new school. Should start by taking that eye-patch off," she commented.

I felt my face get hot. "I-I am _not_ chuunibyou! I am The Winter Mage! And you do not understand the evil that would be unleashed if I removed this eye-patch!" I blurted out, already embarrassed and trying to cover my rose-adorned eye-patch.

_I mean… She's right though… I need to stop at some point, I'm just gonna look silly if I keep this up…_

It was at that point my friend stepped in though. "They'll never understand, Yuko-chan. But don't worry, I, The Blue Lord, vow to keep you safe from these mortals who don't realise our true power,"

I gave the girl a small smile, silently thanking her.

Tamura Kae, my best friend since before Elementary School, was just like me. Acting as The Blue Lord, she was the only reason I could openly act the way I do. Normally I'd be too shy. I say the things I do but then immediately regret it until she comes in to boost my confidence.

Was it silly that we both kept up our chuunibyou ways? Probably. Were we about to give it up? Unlikely.

I shook my head.

_No. I am The Winter Mage, it's them who don't understand._

Riko gave what appeared to be a sympathetic look before returning to her friends.

I turned to Kae. "Will you be joining me this afternoon, Blue Lord?" I enquired.

"I wish I could, but I have some business of my own to attend to, Winter Mage. I'm free over the weekend though," she noted.

"Very well then, until tomorrow," I gave a small bow. Our last period for the week was about to start and we weren't in the same class, so it was unlikely I'd see her until the next day anyway if she had urgent business at home.

I then proceeded to my class as the bell rang. I got there just as the teacher was entering the room.

"Cutting it a bit close, Masuda-san," the 82-year-old lady commented.

"I apologise, Fumina-sensei," I nodded.

"Take a seat," she calmly stated.

Sure enough, I took my seat and managed to get through the final class of the day.

**!=-{+}-=!**

At last, after another long day of boring schoolwork, I was finally on my way home. I decided to stop by the store on my way to get a snack.

Having just crossed the river into Kamiokacho Funatsu and entered a small corner-store, I suddenly heard yells outside. Looking back outside curiously, I was unaware of how drastically my life was about to change.

As I exited the building to see what the commotion was, I was grabbed by some random guy. He proceeded to hold a gun to my head, yelling threats to the police officers that had been chasing him.

I had no idea what was being said though as my mind went into overdrive, fearing that I may have been about to die. That this was the end for me.

But no… This was only the beginning of much more.

The sound of a gunshot brought my attention back as I yelped and squeezed my eyes shut. I felt the guy holding me go limp. He fell forwards, taking me down with him and we crashed to the ground. I felt light-headed after the impact, as well as from the fear of what just occurred. I also felt a warm liquid slowly dribbling down my face.

The guy was pushed off me, and I was able to shakily sit up. I brought my hand to my face, and it came away covered in blood. Staring at the blood-drenched hand in horror, I slowly looked over to the guy. A bullet hole was in his head, and I realised it was _his_ blood that was dripping down my face.

I screamed, scrambling to get away from the dead body.

"Miss! It's okay now, you're safe!" said a voice as someone put their arms around me. I tried to pull away, but they didn't let go. I quickly noticed it was a police officer, and just buried my face in his uniform, crying.

"What's your name, Miss?" the Officer asked gently once I had calmed down somewhat.

"M-Masuda… Y-Yuko…" I sobbed.

"You're a student from Hida Shiritsu Kamioka Junior High School, right?"

I nodded.

"I truly apologise for what happened, Miss Masuda. You should go home, I think you need to relax for a bit," he quietly noted.

"R-Right…"

**!=-{+}-=!**

When I got home, my mother almost fainted at the sight of the blood that stained in my orange hair despite the Officers' best efforts to wipe it off me. I went straight to the bathroom to wash myself off, making sure to thoroughly clean my hair and face.

That night, I didn't even bother to eat dinner. I didn't really have much of an appetite after the happenings of the day, so I went straight to bed.

I cried myself to sleep pretty quickly.

**Sleep**

I groaned, tiredly stretching out my stiff limbs. I quickly retracted when my hand touched something I didn't recognise. I opened my eyes, trying to find what it was.

The first thing I noticed was that I was not in my own bed. Looking around, it seemed as though I was in a foreign room. I heard birds outside that I didn't recognise either.

My attention was suddenly drawn behind me when I felt an unknown part of my body brush against something. I let out a small yelp of surprise and fell off the bed when I saw a cat's tail behind me.

As I fell off the bed, I bumped my head against the floor.

"Owww…" I groaned, rubbing my head. It was then that I felt something that shouldn't be there. I pulled on it but quickly stopped when I felt a sharp pain come from it.

_Cat ears?_

I took another look around and spotted a mirror. Getting up, I walked over to it.

_What…the hell…_

Standing there in the mirror was a girl that looked somewhat similar to me, with a few small differences. But a few rather huge differences also stood out, such as the cat ears and tail I noticed before.

"I'm…a nekomimi…?" I wondered aloud.

I then went over to the window, opening the curtains.

Outside was definitely not the familiar surroundings of the Hida Mountains that I was used to, rather, it appeared I was in the Mediterranean. The house I was in seemed to be up on a hill or mountain, so I had a good view over the rather picturesque landscape. It reminded me a bit of pictures I had seen from Italy, but yet there was a clear Japanese presence by the looks of the towns I could spot.

Those towns were the only familiarities to what I was used to that I could spot though.

Another thing that surprised me was what I saw in the skies. Sci-Fi styled ships were flying here and there as if it were perfectly normal. Now, I was used to hover-cars, but these were full-on Starships from the looks of things.

One flew right past the house, and I caught the familiar kanjis on the side which read 'police.'

_Police? So…wait, is this like, an alternate reality?! Have I awoken as The Winter Mage's true form?!_

It was then that a loud growl came from my stomach.

"Ooogghh…I'm starving…" I groaned.

I took one more look around and spotted a fairly standard-looking brown Japanese school uniform with a red ribbon randomly discarded across the floor, as well as my rose-covered eye-patch sitting on a desk.

Not feeling like looking for other clothes, I quickly put the uniform on, as well as the eye-patch to cover my green eye.

Which made me realise…I had taken my green contact lens out the night before, so both my eyes should have been their normal brown…

_I genuinely have a green eye now…?_

After checking, I confirmed that yes, my right eye was genuinely green now.

Not willing to wait any longer, I left the room and found my way to the kitchen, where I was surprised to see a much younger nekomimi version of my mother already making breakfast.

"Mama…?" I asked in surprise.

"Oh, good morning Yuko-chan. Your breakfast is ready, I'm sure you won't want to be thinking about eating when the Empress visits your class today," Mama grinned.

_Wh-What…?_

"Come on, eat up! Don't want to be late for school!" she said.

I pushed aside my confusion for the moment and ate. I'd be able to figure things out better on a full stomach.

**!=-{+}-=!**

It was all well and good for Mama to say I had to hurry to school, but I still didn't know a thing about where I was. Clearly, she thought I did, which told me she was likely an alternate-reality version of my mother.

Fortunately for me, I saw some other cat-girls wearing the same uniform as me and decided to follow them.

Eventually, I arrived at a school where all the girls were in the same brown uniform.

Looking around, unsure of what to do next, I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around and saw a familiar grey-haired aqua-eyed girl. I was slightly surprised to see she was completely human even in this world, since almost everyone else I had seen today were nekomimis. But I smiled, comforted by the presence of the girl I had been friends with since pre-school.

Though it was admittedly unusual for Tamura Kae to wear her eye-patch at school, usually keeping the black patch with a golden rose symbol stitched on the front of it for outside of school-life.

"Kae-chan!" I squealed, throwing my arms around the younger girl.

"Whoa, hey Yuko-chan, what's up?" she giggled.

Pulling back again, my face must have had a somewhat serious look on it because Kae immediately stopped giggling. "What's wrong?" she asked.

"Um… This might sound really weird but…are you really Kae-chan…?" I quietly asked.

"H-Huh? Oooohhhhh…" she suddenly realised something. "Yuko-chan…are you…are you awake…?"

I looked at her, slightly confused.

She took a deep breath. "Where do you think you live?"

"Umm… Kamiokacho Funatsu, Hida, Gifu Prefecture, Japan?" I slowly said, even more confused.

"…you really are awake… That explains why you looked so confused when I came up, you don't know where you are, do you?" I shook my head. Kae gave a sigh, before explaining a little bit. "You're currently in Kumazawa, about 50 kilometres outside the capital. This country is called East Medoua, sometimes referred to as the Land of the Nekos. It's the only place on Earth that Nekos are native to. Just west of here is West Medoua, where the Kitsunes live. My family came here from Fremmevilla, which is why I'm a human. While this planet technically is Earth, it's not the Earth that we're used to. Places we consider to be fictional like Arendelle, Middle Earth, Oz, Narnia and so much more all exist here. And we're in a fairly well-known fictional galaxy. Though, I know you don't exactly watch much of that series. I don't either. But I know enough to know we're in the Star Wars universe. I don't really know the specifics, but I've been coming here in my dreams every night since I was 7,"

I looked at Kae in shock, trying to take all the information in.

"So… We really are in an alternate-reality…?"

Kae nodded. "Yes, we are,"

_**Stella Khai's POV:**_

I cautiously followed Millie through the hideout, making sure my trench coat's hood was covering my face even though if these really were Jedi, they'd instantly recognise my outfit.

Finally, we came to a chamber with a holoprojector planning table in the centre and some people standing around it, talking. Though the room went silent the moment I entered.

Millie scampered off out of sight, though I could sense that she was still watching what happened.

"Stella Khai, I presume?" one of the men finally spoke up.

"Yes… And who might you be?" I questioned.

"Jedi Knight Gran Bleu," he responded.

"So, you are Jedi. Well, might I ask why a group of Jedi are being classified as an anti-GA underground movement?"

"You really don't know, do ya? They've told you nothin' of who's really in charge of the GA at the moment?" when I didn't respond, he continued. "One of our own has turned to the Dark Side and taken over the GA. The twin brother of the Sword of The Jedi, son of General Solo and Leia, husband of Tanel Ka Djo. I assume you know who I'm talkin' about,"

"Jacen Solo…" I quietly said, cursing myself for not realising this would still happen. Or perhaps I simply forgot that he'd become Darth Caedus, at this point I wasn't even sure myself. I just knew that we had made a mistake by aligning ourselves with the GA in this war.

"He's already killed Master Skywalker's wife, so I ask you as a former Jedi yourself, do you really plan to align with the Sith?" he asked.

I took a moment to think of what we should do, before responding; "No. We're not the Jedi's friends, but after the Galactic Empire I'm not too keen on letting a Sith rule the galaxy again,"

The Jedi sat back, satisfied. "Good answer. Aight then, I suggest gatherin' the Sleepin' Knights. We'll send an informant to Arendelle with details on how you can help out,"

I gave a small nod. "Very well, I will call the Knights to Arendelle and await your friend's arrival,"

I was about to leave when he called out again. "Oh and, the girl who brought you 'ere. You should take 'er to Arendelle with you. She deserves a better life than she's ever gonna get 'ere,"

I glanced over to where the young mute girl was still shyly hiding.

"Very well. Come, girl," I beckoned to her.

"'er name's Millie Foster, take good care of 'er," the Jedi quietly said.

I gave an assuring nod, before leaving with the girl in tow.

Once we were clear of the hideout, I turned to Millie.

"You trust me, right?" I asked. She seemed a little unsure though, so I continued. "I'm gonna make sure you're safe and are able to live a decent life outside of this shit-hole. If you're fearing that I'm gonna try to take you from the Jedi, don't. I don't approve of them, but I won't force you to our side of things. You're free to grow up as a Jedi if that's what you desire,"

After a moment of thought, she began signing. "I believe you. I'll come with you, if Master trusts you then I can trust you,"

I smiled. "Atta girl. Now, we gotta stop off at my apartment first. My husband and kids will need to come with us back to Earth,"

Millie nodded and we hopped in my speeder, heading back to where I was staying.

**!=-{+}-=!**

"Change of plans, we're all going to Earth," I said as I entered the apartment. Felix looked up from his DataPad and immediately noticed Millie.

"And what of the syndicate?" he questioned.

"They're Jedi. We were idiots, Jacen turned and took over the GA. We've been working for Darth Caedus," I explained.

"That explains a lot. Alright, let's get ready to leave. Crystal, you can finish your schoolwork on the _Night Fury_," he quickly said, putting the pad away.

The young girl, while confused, happily put all her school things away while the rest of us picked up everything we needed.

**!=-{+}-=!**

It only took about fifteen minutes before we all made our way to where we had hidden the _Night Fury_ and left Corellia.

When we had finally entered hyperspace, en-route to Earth, I sat back and took a deep breath.

"You sure you're okay, Stel?" Felix enquired.

I nodded. "Yeah… I'm fine," I looked over at my husband, smiling. He returned a warm smile. I felt a lot calmer just looking at him.

His face still had a couple of small scars that had failed to heal fully, and of course, his eyes had never returned to their original brown colour. This was all due to the Yuuzhan Vong. About a year before the war ended, Felix had been captured and experimented on. Fortunately, Rika and I had busted him out before they could hurt him too badly. But the disfigurations that those sadomasochistic Yuuzhan Vong had caused never truly went away.

Even with all that though, he was still one of the most handsome guys I knew, his new grey coloured eyes managed to fit him quite well. He also still managed to be a total chick-magnet, so that had to say something about his looks despite the scars.

I turned my attention back behind us where the three young ones were. Crystal was diligently completing her school assignment at the _Night Fury_'s computer terminal, while Millie was indulging Blake's playful nature as a baby and keeping him occupied.

"So, the whole time… And you had no idea?" Felix sighed.

I shook my head. "I thought we had done enough… I literally spoke with Jacen before we were sent to Corellia and I really thought he was okay. I really thought his friendship with us had prevented his fall… But I guess I was wrong. Should have realised that when the Jedi split,"

Felix put his hand on my shoulder.

"Stel, we couldn't have helped him any more than we did. We just have to hope that our presence may somehow redeem him. I mean, hey, Anakin's not dead yet. That was kinda supposed to happen _until you accidentally saved him_,"

I slightly chuckled, recalling how almost straight after I had defeated Estella, we somehow ended up around Myrkr saving Anakin Solo's life. "It wasn't really an accident, but yeahhh that did happen,"

"It kinda was if you think about it, we didn't exactly intend to go to Myrkr. We were just evading Virtcast tracking," Felix reminded.

"I guess so. Well, I hope you're right…"

_**Lara Pendoberg's POV:**_

I was slightly surprised to get a message from Stella telling us to meet in Qeios, but I was quite relieved that Matt and I could get away from trying to talk the leaders of Allona out of a war with Kaedilar after their King was _supposedly_ killed by a Kaedilarian assassin.

It was especially difficult to help Kaedilar when neither I nor Matt knew a single word of German, but fortunately, they supplied a translator for us.

The case was hurting my head after a while. Allona was so set on Kaedilar being the culprit even though all our evidence had pointed to a part-Merman who we suspected to be Elyas Lawson- the son of former Virtcast member Ariel Lear and the now-dead King of Allona, Eric Lawson- and some random masked woman who witnesses reported to have an Arendellian accent, making us believe she was the Night Striker of Arendelle. We had found DNA evidence and identified a possible suspect for who the woman was, but we were highly suspicious of how accurate it was.

The DNA used to unlock the royal vault was identified as being that of an Arendellian Princess that had been announced missing and presumed dead about 40 years ago.

Either way, the council in charge of Allona were so stubborn and set on fighting Kaedilar that I was seriously happy to just give up and let the corrupt politicians do their thing.

My husband and I flew the _Kesh Wanderer_ back into Qeian airspace, landing in the Royals' private hangar in Qeios City.

"You two seem glad to be back," smirked Jane as we left the ship.

"Any longer in Allona and I think I would have ripped someone's head off," Matt groaned.

"Pretty sure they know Kaedilar had nothing to do with the King's death, they just want a reason to fight the Germans," I added.

"Well that's not very nice now is it," Jane gave a jokingly accusing face which made me laugh.

It was then that a young girl with black hair and hazel eyes ran out to us. I caught the Qeian Princess who giggled as I swung her around.

"Good to see Kirah's still a little ball of happiness," Matt chuckled.

"You mean a little pain in the butt," Jane grinned.

"How so?" I enquired.

"Let's just say she's recently learnt that she has my ice powers," Jane explained.

"Ah, I see. I'm guessing this has something to do with that?" I pointed to a white highlight in Kirah's hair.

Jane nodded. "Had a little mistake, nothing fatal though. She recovered quickly. I think she just wanted to take after her other mother and her grandmother with their signature coloured hair,"

I chuckled again, realising it did seem similar to Sonia and Rivatha's red highlights.

"Speaking of, Sonia's a bit busy at the moment but if you two want to come join us for dinner, you're more than welcome. I don't think Stella and Felix will be here until tomorrow. Rika and Shaun are somewhere in the city already, while the others I hear are either arriving this afternoon or tomorrow. I believe Clarissa is just leaving Arendelle now too," Jane continued.

"Alright, thanks, Jane. I guess we'll see you for dinner then," Matt smiled.

Jane gave a friendly nod and started looking at the _Kesh Wanderer_. It had become a hobby of hers to help with any services or repairs on our fighters and ships with her daughter, much to our surprise.

We both left the hangar and headed into the city for a bit.

I wrapped my arms around Matt's arm, resting my head on his shoulder.

"It's been a while since we had the whole team together," I said.

"Sure has been… Though it's not been all that bad having minimal duties as Sleeping Knights in the last couple years. We've had plenty more time together," he grinned.

I rolled my eyes.

We sat down at a café we came to very often while in Qeios, Puller's Pastries- a café that was originally founded by Joshua Puller's older sister and currently belongs to her daughter- and ordered our usual.

Some kids were playing around nearby, looked like they were roleplaying something. I smiled lightly at the group, recalling when Stella and I would do that sort of stuff in the Wake.

But I was quickly on alert as I sensed a disturbance.

I glanced at Matt momentarily. "Yeah, I sense it too," he nodded.

A scream got our attention and we dashed to the source in an alleyway. A woman was being robbed by the looks of it.

I ignited my gold broadsabre, holding it out to the thief.

"Hold it right there. You should give that purse back, _thief_," I threatened.

The masked figure smirked, pulling out a small blade. They swung it at me, and I moved my sabre to block it.

But I hadn't realised it was a cortosis blade.

Of course, my lack of attention resulted in my lightsabre short-circuiting and turning off. The cortosis blade cut into my arm.

My body seized up in terror and I dropped the sabre hilt. I heard another lightsabre igniting, but all I could see in front of me was Estella Noral. I screamed.

Warm arms wrapped around me and pulled me into a tight hug. I buried my face into what I knew to be Matt's chest.

"I don't want her to hurt me again!" I sobbed.

"Shh, it's okay Lara. There's no danger, he can't hurt you," Matt comforted.

I took a moment to glance back at the scene. Sure enough, instead of Estella, I saw the figure's mask had fallen off. It was just a random guy, whose face happened to be contorted in agony at the fact that Matt had cut his hand off as soon as he realised he was holding a cortosis blade.

"It's…it's not Estella…?" I shook, tears trailing down my cheeks.

"No, it's not Estella. You don't have to worry. Estella's been dead for thirteen years, she's not coming back," Matt gently told me.

I buried my face back into his chest, still sobbing.

"Holy shit, are you two okay?!" I heard an American accented voice ask.

"Yeah, we're fine, Shaun. But I think Lara's a bit shaken up," Matt commented.

Another hand started rubbing my back in a calming manner.

"Lara, are you gonna be alright?" the familiar voice of Rika asked.

I slowly pulled away from Matt and looked at my best friend. "Y-Yeah…I think so…"

"Come on, let's get you back to the Main Building," my husband whispered.

I just nodded.

Matt, Shaun and Rika helped me up and we all headed back to where we were staying in the Main Building of Qeios.

**!=-{+}-=!**

That evening as I got into bed, I snuggled as close to Matt as I could.

"You're safe, don't worry," he whispered, sensing my distress.

"…thanks…"

"Goodnight, my little Lara," he kissed my forehead.

I closed my eyes and hoped I'd be able to sleep soundly.

**26 ABY; 2063 Earth Time**

"Incoming starfighter…who the hell would paint a HH-87 bright white and hot pink…?" I commented as I watched the clearly stolen Virtcast fighter landing near where Lyla and I had been set up.

"I think we're about to find out," Lyla said.

A girl with white twin-tails that looked identical to Stella's and a very skimpy white outfit climbed out of the fighter.

"Who are you?" Lyla demanded.

"Who I am…does not matter to you…" she spoke in a monotonous voice with no emotions. She then looked directly at me. "You interest me…I think you can tell me…where my target is…"

"I'm not telling you jack shit until you tell us your intentions and name," I sneered.

"You will…or you will die…"

Lyla and I ignited our lightsabres right as this white Stella look-a-like summoned a huge scythe. Her right eye ignited in a pink flame which made me pause.

_Stella's the only one with that power though…isn't she…?_

Lyla charged in first, swinging her red sabre at the girl. To my shock, the lightsabre fizzled out when the pink blade of the scythe touched it. Lyla acted quickly, sliding under the scythe and jumping up behind her.

The girl didn't hesitate in charging at me. By instinct, I brought my silver sabre up to stop the incoming scythe, but of course, mine broke just the same as Lyla's. The scythe put a deep cut into my left thigh, making me fall to the ground. Her knee came up and hit me in the face, shattering my nose.

My vision was blurred as I felt myself being dragged along the ground. I was thrown into the Starhopper, completely unable to do anything.

A bag was then put over my head, and chains around my wrists and ankles.

Terror filled my mind as I realised the chains prevented my connection to the Force.

I felt the Starhopper fly for a few minutes before landing once more. I figured we had to still be on Kinyen, but I also knew this girl would have avoided being tracked by Lyla.

I was dragged out of the Starhopper and thrown to the ground hard.

The bag over my head was taken off.

I glared at the girl in anger, but also terror.

"Now…where is the girl…who looks like me…"

_Stella?! She's after Stella?!_

"I'm never going to tell you," I spat.

"Yes…you will…"

A white sword appeared in her hand this time. She swiftly brought it across my right arm, cutting deep into the skin. I screamed in pain.

When I refused to talk, the blade was forced into my right thigh. My vision started going red and I nearly passed out from the pain.

"This will only get worse…until you talk…"

The blade cut straight across my chest, not deep enough to be fatal, but still drawing a lot of blood.

Further silence caused her to stamp on my stomach. Pain and nausea coursed through me, causing me to throw up.

She grabbed me by the collar of my hoodie, picking me up. I was then thrown at a rock. I felt my left leg break as I hit the ground again, causing another scream of pain. Blood spurted out of my mouth and the taste of it mixed with the taste of vomit.

"I don't think you can take much more…so you should tell me…what I need to know…"

More silence from me and she pushed the hilt of her sword against the right side of my chest. I shrieked in agony as she basically started crushing my right ribcage.

She punched me in the face, and warm liquid started coming from my forehead and covered one of my eyes.

I finally broke.

"EARTH!" I screamed. The girl took her sword away and I panted, getting my breath back. "She's on Earth…in Montana…"

_I'm sorry, Stella…please forgive me…_

The girl looked me over for a few more seconds, before smacking the hilt of her sword into my head and knocking me unconscious.

**40 ABY; 2077 Earth Time**

**Wake**

I shot up, breathing heavily.

Looking around I was relieved to see the familiar surroundings of my bedroom. A warm hand came to rest on my shoulder, and I turned to see Matt was wide awake.

"Nightmare?" he asked.

"Yeah…my memories of that day with Estella…they still feel so fresh… I keep reliving that attack…" I whispered, tears coming forth once more.

He pulled me into a tight hug. He didn't say anything, he just held me close, occasionally kissing my neck. It worked, my heart rate came right down, and I was no longer as panicked as I had been.

A few minutes passed, and I was finally back to normal. I pulled back a little and smiled.

I gave Matt a gentle kiss before we both got out of bed.

"Come on, you're sweating. Let's get you in the shower," he smiled.

I silently followed to the bathroom where he made sure the water was hot before pulling me in. The gentle touch of his hands against my skin was all I really needed to temporarily forget the nightmare I had just had.

"Thank you," I quietly said, kissing him again.

"I'm always here for you," he whispered.

_**Sector 3: Princess of Hell**_

I sighed as it finally came time to close up shop. It had been a rather slow day at the computer shop I worked at, so while it was good for the guys out back fixing the computers they already had lined up, it was quite boring for me who only really worked in the front of the store serving the customers.

"Have a good evening, Lara," smiled one of my co-workers as I grabbed my hoodie from the desk beside him.

"You too, Jordan," I nodded.

I paused for a moment once I was behind the wheel of my blue 2060 Mitsubishi X-99 Legnum Estate LE, contemplating whether I should stop by the shops on the way home.

In the end, I didn't bother. I was pretty tired and just wanted to get back to Matt for now.

I pulled into the driveway next to Matt's white 2070 Nissan Malachite.

"How was your day?" Matt smiled as I entered the house.

"Eh, boring. Barely any customers," I shrugged, giving him a kiss. "Yours?"

"Well since I didn't have work today, tried to get through one of the new dungeons in Emberguard. Unfortunately, the party didn't bring any healers, which was pretty stupid. Even as a Vampire Hunter / Adventurer - Dwarf at max level I didn't last long," he groaned.

I laughed. "Guess I gotta help you _again_. I know I'm a Ninja / Healer but god damn, you guys rely on me way too much. My Kitsune magic can only support so many of you at one time."

"Not my fault Sonia's too busy being a top player and Sally has work most of the time," he defended.

"There _are_ other healers, priests and paladins aside from the three of us in EGO. Hell, Sonia isn't even the only healer in the top 10 of the Australasian server, HeartOfDesu is a Summoner / Healer. Wild idea: make some more friends," I teased.

"Ah but Sonaitha is a Paladin / Healer, so she's the more effective healer out of the two of them. But yeah, I know. Unlike you lot though I just keep running into idiots in EGO," he admitted.

"Sucks to be you," I stuck my tongue out at him, before squealing and running as he tried to grab me.

"The amount of tickles you're going to get when I catch you, I swear," he smirked.

"Never!"

Of course, it was a small house. He caught me easily. I regret to inform you that I died from tickles that day.

Well, not really. But I was left completely out of breath and unable to move.

_Now that would be something to put on a gravestone… Lara Pendoberg Tarn, 2039-2077, died from tickle overload._

_**Yuko Masuda's POV:**_

**Sleep**

The school day was nearly over, and I think I understood a little of what was going on. But of course, a single day in a new world was never going to be enough to know much really.

What I _had_ learnt though was that magic existed in this world. That got me excited. It was Kae, of course, that had shown me. She truly was The Blue Lord here, she even had combat training!

It was a bit hard to believe my best friend was a warrior-in-training, but she _did_ have an enchanted sword, and during lunch break, her combat training class did a presentation for the Empress of the nation. I had watched in awe as Kae Tamura, a girl I had known my whole life, proved herself as the top of the class with both sword skills and magic attacks.

Now I was in my final class for the day, and supposedly the Empress was going to visit us.

In-fact, just as I was thinking about it, the young-looking nekomimi girl entered the room.

When people had told me the Empress of East Medoua was here, I had expected it to be one of the older looking women. Not a girl that looked like she belonged in high school.

She had short brown hair and red eyes, and her personality seemed really hyper and bouncy. Again, like you might expect from a high school girl, not an 82-year-old lady.

"Class, I'm sure you all know who this is. Fumina Minako-sama, the Empress of East Medoua," our teacher introduced.

_Fumina-sensei?!_

I stared in shock. There was no way this bouncy girl was the same Minako Fumina as my strict teacher back in the real world!

"Hello everyone!" she beamed. "You know, I was half expecting you guys to be the least energetic class of the day, but you really aren't. It's the end of the day! I hope you put your all into your daily activities!"

To my surprise, the class laughed at her comment.

"Well, either way…"

After that, I paid as much attention as I could, though even she admitted her speech was boring and forced by her advisors. I found most of it interesting simply because it was new information to me.

Finally, class ended. Minako left just before, but I rushed out to catch up to her. Her guards seemed a little on edge when I approached so quickly, but Minako smiled and motioned for them to stand down.

"Uh…sorry, Empress…but, uh…I…"

She cut me off with a gesture, giving me a wink. "Cutting it a bit close, Masuda-san."

_Holy crap…_

"…It…It really is you, Fumina-sensei?!" I breathed, surprised.

"Mhm, you caught me!" she giggled, pulling a silly face.

"Wait, but how did you know that's what I was going to ask…?"

She shrugged. "The way you were acting throughout the day made it pretty obvious you had only just woken up here for the first time. Plus, Tamura-san mentioned it when I talked to her. She knew you'd recognise me as soon as you learnt my name."

"You're…completely different to in the other world, Fumina-sensei," I commented.

"Well, I am an old lady there. As a Neko though I'm barely even considered middle-aged yet. I'm only 82, a Neko's average life-span is about 200 years," she smiled.

"Whoa…so, I'll also live for 200 years in this world…?" she nodded. "What about Kae-chan?"

"Tamura-san is human. Even in this world, humans have the same lifespan as they do in our world. It sucks, but it's true," Minako sighed.

_So…I'm going to live longer than Kae-chan…_

"Well, I gotta run. Good luck on your new life here in the Dream Realm!" the Empress grinned.

"T-Thanks…Fumina-sensei…" I waved goodbye as she left in a sci-fi speeder.

"I'm going to guess you want to become The Winter Mage now that you've seen me use magic," came a voice from behind me.

I turned to see Kae. "You know me too well," I smirked. I then realised there was something I hadn't asked about yet. "You don't normally wear your eye patch to school, so why here?"

"In this world, I have to wear it. Not because of some evil eye or anything, I lost my left eye in a sparring match a few years ago," Kae admitted. "You on the other hand… Heterochromatic eyes are somewhat unusual even in this world. Often if you have them, it means you have some sort of special power like magic detection or aura reading. You're one of the rare cases of basic heterochromia. The old you wore that eye patch to hide it because people automatically expected you to have some crazy power and it often made them scared of you."

"Oh…" I carefully brushed the eye patch covering my green right eye. "So, I guess we both look like chuunibyous in this world too," I chuckled quietly.

Kae giggled. "A little bit, yes. But that sort of thing doesn't really exist here, so people don't consider kids like us to be weird. As I said before, magic is common practise for Nekos and some other races, and of course, humans like myself can be pretty good with it too."

I looked Kae over. She was currently wearing the same brown school uniform as me, but sitting on her waist was the magically enhanced sword she used. She was still in training, but her class was considered a senior class despite being junior high schoolers. Thus, she was allowed to have her weapon on her even at school. Classes like hers apparently did actual missions, fighting basic demon beasts out in the field.

"Hey, Kae-chan… We're graduating into high school in this world soon too, aren't we?" she nodded. "Would it be possible for me to join your combat training class next year?" I asked.

"I mean, you'd have to get your own weapon. But technically you can join in these last few weeks of junior high school. I doubt Shime-sensei would mind," Kae said.

I looked at her in excitement. "Really?! But…where would I get a weapon?"

"Don't worry, my family is actually quite rich here. I can get you something easily. Just tell me what you want," she grinned.

I thought for a moment before my eyes fell upon Kae's sword again. "I want something like that," I said.

She looked down, taking the dark blue and silver blade out of its sheath. "An enchanted bastard sword made from votrum, an incredibly tough and expensive metal that can go toe-to-toe with lightsabres. Votrum normally looks a dark bluish-green, but can be coated to look a different colour like mine is. Still easy to tell it's votrum by the temperature of the blade," she held the blade out to me. I felt it and realised it was freezing cold despite the warm temperature of the day. "Votrum is extremely cold, as you can tell."

She then offered the hilt to me, and I grabbed it. The weapon wasn't as heavy as I expected it to be, I was able to hold and swing it with ease.

"Comfortable?" she asked.

"Yeah, it feels good to swing," I nodded.

"Glad to hear. That is one of the most expensive types of sword you can get, I'd be disappointed if it wasn't great to use. I might not be able to get an ultra-expensive fancy sword like that for you, but I can get a hold of at least a second-hand votrum bastard sword from Montana. Then it's just a matter of enchanting it, pretty easy to do."

I gave the sword back to her. "Thanks, Kae-chan. I really appreciate the help."

She smiled. "Of course. Anything for my best friend, The Winter Mage."

_**Stella Khai's POV:**_

Millie, Felix and I entered the throne room where Sonia was, much to the disapproval of her advisors, rewiring a holoprojector with Rika.

Jane saw us and smiled. "About bloody time,"

I gave her and the rest of the Sleeping Knights gathered an apologetic look. "Sorry! We had to stop by Arendelle to drop Crystal and Blake off,"

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you to drop them off at the castle. James is taking care of Melody there and offered to let Crystal and Blake stay," Savara noted.

"Don't worry, the castle was the first place we went to. I just hope Melody lets Crystal finish her school assignment," I chuckled.

"Pretty sure Melody has exams. They both go to the same school anyway; Crystal just does long-distance correspondence. Which, by the way, your welcome for setting up. The Arendelle College was pretty unsure of whether they wanted to do _intergalactic_ correspondence," Savara laughed.

"Thanks for that, Sav," I smirked.

"Fucking finally!" Sonia shouted, making the rest of us jump in surprise.

The holoprojector table flickered to life.

"Sorry about that," the Queen apologised when she noticed the rest of us looking at her. "This thing was being a pain in the arse."

I heard Rika chuckling to herself on the other side of the table.

"Well, now that that's fixed and we're all here. Stel, what you got?" Jane inquired.

We all gathered around the holoprojector. "So, slight problem. We might need to start working with the Jedi or Confederation for a bit. Turns out I made a mistake, we've been working for Darth Caedus," I explained.

"Even after everything we did? Christ, stopping Skywalkers from falling to the dark side is impossible!" groaned Tarev.

"To be fair, I did anticipate this happening. I've got some Confederation contacts, if you're planning on helping them, I can get us info on where exactly Caedus is attacking," Sonia said.

"…so you knew…?" I deadpanned.

Sonia and Jane both shrugged. Clarissa was giving me a look that seemed to say 'Really?'

_Just because your brother was so insistent on keeping the timeline proper doesn't mean it actually is._

"Kinda, yeah. Didn't have many chances to tell you though, you had to go dark on comms, remember?" Jane defended.

I sighed. "Yeah you're right I guess…"

"To be completely honest, I actually thought you might have known and were willingly working with Jacen, considering you were close friends with him. Otherwise, we would have told you in the Wake," Sonia added.

I was about to retort, but thought for a second. _We became good friends with Jacen, turned against the Jedi and then worked for him after he turned to the dark side, I guess it makes complete sense that they thought it was intentional._

Millie tugged at my sleeve. When she got my attention, she started signing. "Does she know about the Empire?"

I looked at the young girl, confused. "The Empire? You mean the Qeios Empire?" I asked.

Millie shook her head. "The Sith Empire,"

I paused for a moment, repeating the phrase over and over in my head.

_There hasn't been a Sith Empire for over a millennium, and there isn't supposed to be one again for another century or so…_

"What did she say?" Sonia asked, a serious look taking over her face when she saw my reaction to Millie's hand gestures.

"…she said the Sith Empire…" I said.

I felt the room chill as everyone realised quickly what I was beginning to piece together.

_Darth Caedus has a Sith Empire in this timeline._

"I've heard nothing about a Sith Empire from the Confederation…so my guess is they don't know," Sonia noted.

"I haven't heard anything about it either," Savara said.

"Are you sure, Millie?" I asked.

"Yes. My Master mentioned it. He said 'The new Sith Empire is being built in the shadows. It won't be long before they storm the galaxy,'" Millie signed.

"The new Sith Empire is being built in the shadows…it won't be long before they storm the galaxy…? That makes it sound like your Master was a part of it," I noted.

Millie made some more gestures, and I froze.

_No way… He didn't make me take Millie because he wanted her to have a better life…he wanted me to take her because he was going to betray the Jedi!_

"Millie, do you know the communication channel used by your group?" I quickly asked.

The mute girl nodded, imputing it into the holoprojector. I tried to contact the frequency, but was met by nothing.

Everyone else looked slightly confused.

"They're gone…they were betrayed, and sold out to Darth Caedus… Holy shit…" I whispered.

'_I sense distress, what's wrong, Onee-chan?'_

Amea's sudden voice in my head surprised me.

_The Jedi I found before… They're dead._

'…_please take a break before going after Caedus…'_

_I know. I'll still come to Zaloudek once I'm done here._

"Stel, should I contact the Jedi?" Sonia asked.

I nodded. "Yeah…Take your time, gather as much info as you can. I have something I need to do here on Earth…but we will make our move on the GA soon, I promise,"

"What about Millie? She was given to us to protect, she's only a youngling. If not, a Padawan at most. We can't bring her into this fight," Felix stated.

I looked at the small 15-year-old mute girl.

"She's to stay in Arendelle. It should be safe for her there, she can still train as a Jedi at the Knights' Academy," I decided.

I was slightly surprised when Millie began signing frantically. But I quickly realised what she was saying.

"Oh, FUCK you're right, I'm sorry Millie…" I turned to the others again. "Millie's Master said he would send an informant to Arendelle. Actually, we were supposed to meet up in Arendelle, but I chose to be cautious and meet here."

Tarev and Savara glanced at each other, before looking back at me. "And this same Master just sold the Jedi out… How do we know he hasn't set a trap for us in Arendelle?" Tarev commented.

I nodded. "Yeah, I expect as much. But they don't know you'll be expecting it," I put a hand on Tarev's shoulder. "The Arendelle Royal Guard should be able to handle it, but I'm going to trust you guys to make sure no one gets hurt."

"You don't have to worry, Stel. We got this," he smirked.

"You take care of what you need to, leave it to us," Felix assured.

I smiled, giving Tarev a hug.

"It's time the Galactic Alliance learns a lesson. The Sleeping Knights aren't to be taken lightly," I stated.

"Yeah!" everyone agreed.

I quickly gave Felix a kiss before heading back to the hangar where the _Brunhilde_ had been sitting while I was off-world.

**!=-{+}-=!**

I carefully guided the _Brunhilde_ down into a courtyard in the main castle of Zaloudek's capital.

"Keep the engines on idle, I don't think we'll be long," I said to the fighter's AI.

"Affirmative, Miss Khai."

I climbed out, jumping down to the grass-covered ground and almost immediately I was tackled to the ground by Amea.

"Onee-chan!" she cried happily.

"Hey Amea, long time no see," I chuckled, hugging the energetic girl.

When she finally got off me, I barely had time to react before a certain half-Angel girl was on me.

"Oba-san!" Yoshimitsu beamed.

"Ohayō, Yoshimi-chan!" I laughed.

"Look! Look! I have wings!" the 4-year-old said in Āsuman, unfurling black Angel wings.

"Whoa, look at that! I'm jealous," I smirked.

_Why are they black though…?_

'_Apparently it's a side effect of being half-human,_'

_Ah. Well, it looks cool, so that's a plus._

I noticed Amea giggling behind Yoshimi.

Amea's bodyguard and childhood friend, Kaitlyn Herle approached with Kadmiel as I got up from the ground.

"Welcome back, Miss Stella," Kaitlyn greeted.

"Seriously, Kait, I told you before. Stop calling me 'Miss' when we're not in public. Here I'm just your best friend's sister, not the Princess of Zaloudek," I reminded.

She chuckled. "Sorry, force of habit."

"Alright Yoshimi, I'm gonna be going out with Aunty Stella for a while. Your father and Kaitlyn-chan will be taking care of you. I'll be back soon though, I promise," Amea smiled at her daughter.

"Daijōbu Mama!"

"I doubt I need to say it, but take care of her," Kadmiel said to me.

"It's unlikely we'll be running into any trouble, so don't worry, Kad," I nodded.

Amea had already jumped up into the cockpit of the _Brunhilde_ and was sitting in the co-pilot's seat. I followed suit and leapt up into the pilot's seat, closing the cockpit.

"You know, this might be the first time I've flown in the _Brunhilde_," Amea commented.

"You know what, I think you're right. Welcome to my fighter," I grinned. "Alright, let's head out. Any preference on where we want to go?"

"Eh, I hear Zelwinds is nice this time of year," Amea replied.

I chuckled. "Aight, Zelwinds it is. You hear that, _Brunhilde_?"

"Affirmative. Plotting course to: Zelwinds, Earth."

**!=-{+}-=!**

The flight was fairly uneventful, and we soon landed near the beginning of a mountain trail which led to an outcropping I had been to before with Felix. I had figured it would be a nice place to relax, since that's exactly why Amea had suggested coming here.

Zelwinds was a pleasant nation, its Wake-counterpart being Spain meant it was quite peaceful during the day especially. Partly due to a portion of the populace being asleep for a majority of the day since they lived in the Wake.

That was a thing people sometimes questioned with how mixed the counterpart countries of this Earth were compared to the countries of the Wake Earth: what happens with people who live in countries that, in our world, were in a completely opposite time zone to Australia but here were right next to us. The simple answer was exactly what you might expect; people from the Wake in European countries lived a lot of their lives in this realm in the late or early hours of the day and through the night. Partly because of this, a lot of the people who consciously wake up here go off-world or to another country. The number of people moving off-world was a huge part of how this world managed to avoid being overpopulated.

Another reason people found it hard to believe this world existed back in the Wake was just that, this world would become more overpopulated than our Earth for multiple reasons. One of them being that there are a lot of people born in this realm who aren't from the Wake. Another is the races that live for hundreds or even thousands of years.

Either way, I only assumed what the reason we didn't have overpopulation was. I didn't really care much, just as long as the world stayed in a way where it wouldn't suffer from overpopulation.

I led Amea to the outcropping that looked out over the Kingdom.

When we finally got there, I sensed her surprise.

"Whoa, I've never been to Zelwinds before. This view…it's awesome!" she exclaimed.

I smirked. "I know, right? Perfect weather too."

It sure was a sight. Being here nearly made me forget about the troubles with Darth Caedus and the supposed Sith Empire.

Suddenly though, dark clouds appeared above us.

'_That's…way too sudden to be natural,_'

_Keep on your guard._

"We should head back into that cave," I pointed out.

Amea nodded and we began cautiously making our way to a small cave.

Out of nowhere, a tall figure appeared in front of us. I realised with dread that his hand was on the handle of a katana and he was already pulling it out.

"Amea!" I called, trying to warn her to back up. She turned around immediately and tried to make a run for it, at the same time reaching for the lightsabre on her thigh.

It was too late.

I watched in horror as the katana sliced up her back, forcing her to trip and fall towards me. I reached out to catch her, but she fazed through me and vanished, Kingdom Hearts-style.

"AMEA!" I screamed.

I frantically tried to detect her life signs through our connection. A small wave of relief came over me when I felt her alive, but new fears filled me as I realised she was totally unresponsive. It was almost as if all her mental activity had ceased.

I glared at the figure in rage, my left eye igniting in a raging blue flame and my Black Blade appearing in my hand.

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO HER?!" I demanded.

"She's not dead if that's what you think. But in the world she's been sent to, I doubt she'll survive long," he said.

"Bring her back, or I will make your life the worst kind of hell you could imagine," I growled.

He simply laughed. "And that's supposed to scare me? Let me introduce myself. My name is Xaquin Rodis, but most people in my world simply call me the Devil,"

"I don't give a fuck what they call you, you could be fucking Satan himself for all I care. I _will_ make you pay for what you've done. You _will_ fear me," I sneered.

"I'm not sure who you believe yourself to be, but let me tell you one thing: I have conquered worlds far less primitive than yours; I have destroyed the strongest warriors in every dimension I've travelled to. If you think you're this world's strongest warrior then, by all means, face me. Defeating you will just make conquering this world that much easier. You'll be reunited with your little friend soon enough when I send you to Kingdom Shadow with her," he smirked.

"I'm Stella Motherfucking Khai. I've been called the Princess of Hell by the Yuuzhan Vong, I am the daughter of one of the strongest Jedi Knights of all time, I've overpowered multiple fucking demons. And you just managed to piss me the fuck off, big time. Now, are you going to give me my sister back, or do I have to annihilate you and do it myself?"

The man was a fair bit taller than me, around 5"11 I guessed. He had short blond hair and piercing blue eyes, dressed in a blue trench coat with gold trim.

Xaquin just laughed again, this time charging straight at me with his katana drawn.

I blocked the hit, though was pushed backwards from his strength. He hit me again and again until I was on the very edge of the overhang.

One more hit sent me straight off, but I wasn't going to let him beat me that easily. I used the Force and pulled myself closer to the cliff. I grabbed on to the rocks and leapt straight back up. Landing behind Xaquin, I wasted no time in charging at him at full speed.

Our blades clashed once more, the force of the impact destroying the rocks around us.

I swung again, and again, and again until finally he got pushed back a bit. He was slightly surprised, but in retaliation, he brought down a lightning strike onto me.

In a flash, my Rock Cannon was in my hand and the lightning struck straight down the barrel.

"That was a mistake,"

I pointed the cannon at Xaquin and fired a supercharged blast straight into his face.

The shot definitely hurt him, but he still seemed to shrug it off.

"Perhaps you are stronger than I expected. But I won't be underestimating you again. Normally I'd just send the strong warriors back to my own world of Kingdom Shadow to die an agonising death. But with you, I might just choose to kill you myself. Until next time, Stella Khai," and with that, Xaquin vanished.

"YOU BASTARD!" I screamed, before falling to my knees. I looked down, tears dropping to the ground as I wept.

But that wasn't going to get me anywhere.

I rubbed my eyes, looking back up and gazing out across Zelwinds, determination filling me.

_I will destroy you, Xaquin Rodis._

_**Sector 4: Remnants of Demons**_

_**Styra Khai's POV:**_

"What? You can't do it? Fuckin wimp," I smirked.

"I-It's a demon beast! How could you expect me to fight that?!" the kid whined.

"Chicken," Declan teased. Gabriel, Lauren and Koby joined in with Declan chanting and teasing the poor kid.

"H-How about you do it, I-I bet you c-can't," the kid tried to retort.

I just smirked. "Fine, guess I'll show you how a Sleeping Knight does it. Gabby, hold this," I gave him my jacket and grabbed my lightsabre.

The purple blade ignited, and I smugly strolled into the clearing where the demon beast was. It immediately noticed me when it heard the sabre.

"Come get some, cunt," I taunted.

It howled and ran at me. I simply side-stepped it and sliced its head off.

_Easy._

Turning back to the others, I bowed. My friends cheered, and the kid just looked defeated.

_What a satisfying look._

It was when the cheering stopped that I sensed danger.

"Uh, Styra…!" Lauren called out.

I turned around again and saw what she was warning me about. A whole pack of demon beasts.

_Great. Just fucking great._

I ran into the middle of the pack, cutting the first demon beast in half, stabbing the second, kicking the third before running my sabre up its stomach and cutting the fourth's head off. I stabbed the fifth too, but a huge claw crashed into my back. I fell onto my face.

I turned over just in time to see a giant demon beast about to rip me to shreds. My lightsabre went straight through its chest, and I used the Force to push it off.

"Styra! We should get out of here!" Gabriel panicked. I brushed him off though. I could handle a horde like this.

"If you're that scared then run, I can handle this," I shouted back.

I Force pulled another demon beast straight onto my lightsabre.

It was then that I heard a scream that sounded like Lauren. I glanced over to see them all surrounded by demon beasts.

Declan and Kody grabbed their swords, moving to defend Lauren and Gabriel who didn't have weapons.

I did also notice the kid had successfully run away, which somehow irritated me more that he was the only one to escape.

Force blasting a group of demon beasts away from me, I ran to the group of four. I cut up about six demon beasts before I felt Kody crash into me after being hit by a strong beast. I recovered in time to see Gabriel get pulled away.

"GAB!" Lauren screamed. I tried to use the Force to pull him back, but paused when I realised I'd end up ripping his leg off if I did.

My next instinct was to charge in, but I once again faltered when a blue sabre-staff appeared out of the trees and cut the demon beast in half before returning to its owner, who I knew all too well.

Low and behold, a woman wearing a black cloak appeared, followed closely by a _very_ pale woman also wearing black.

"Lyla, you take that group. I'll clear the clearing," came the unemotional authoritarian tone of Stella Khai.

"On it, Stella," my mother replied.

I watched Stella a bit begrudgingly as she took care of the horde in record speeds. But there was something unusual about her movements, and the way her flame was acting.

She seemed to lack her usual control and was fighting in an almost beast-like style, it sorta seemed like she was angry. The way she moved was unrefined and raw.

It was still enough to destroy the demon beasts though.

Once all the beasts were killed, the two older women turned to us.

"A certain someone told us you were out here playing with demon beasts. I hope you learnt your fucking lesson," Stella scowled.

_Yeah, she's pissed…_

"Stella…calm down," Mother said gently.

Stella glared at her, but took a deep breath and extinguished her flame.

"Now, you five should know better than to do silly things like this. Especially you, Styra," Mother told us sternly.

"S-Sorry, Ma'am. It won't happen again…" Lauren apologised.

"Tch," I just rolled my eyes.

"Let's go back to Arendelle now. Before more demon beasts come," Mother continued. The others nodded.

"Styra, wait here a second. I need to talk to you," Stella said.

My friends and mother went on ahead, leaving me alone with a very angry Stella.

"Young lady, you wanted to be a Sleeping Knight? Well, how about you start acting like one. _This_ is not us. We don't go around picking on the little guys, we _protect_ the little guys. Got it?" she lectured.

"Whatever."

"Styra Klal Khai, I'm not in a mood you want to fuck with right now," she warned.

"Is that what you told my mother when you _murdered_ her," I snapped.

Stella seemed slightly taken aback by that comment.

"You know full well why that happened. A fucking _demon_ was controlling me, do you really think I wanted to do what I did?"

"I don't know! All I know is I watched you kill my mother in front of me, and you tried to kill my other mother too. I WAS FIVE! DO YOU EVEN REALISE WHAT THAT DID TO ME?! I was fucking terrified of you after that. To this day it gives me fucking nightmares. AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED, YOU'RE JUST A DEMON BEAST DISGUISED AS A FUCKING HUMAN!" I yelled at her.

Stella didn't appear to have a response to that. What the hell could she have said anyway? Sorry? Fuck that. I'd have punched her in the face.

After a few moments, I turned to walk away.

And that's when I heard her mumble.

I turned back, shocked to see a tear running down her cheek.

"I know I've made mistakes… I have to go tell a girl who is basically my niece that I watched her mother practically get killed literally an hour ago, and I couldn't do anything to save her. And to tell you the truth? I still have nightmares of things that happened when I was 18. I betrayed and hospitalised my father by giving him a fatal injury that _should_ have killed him. That was only thirteen years ago. Not to mention the two million people I helped kill by letting my emotionally unstable boyfriend blow up Aincrad Space Station. The fact that I even tried to kill you at that point still haunts me. I've been through shit I hope you never have to experience, because there's a fucking good chance it'd destroy you. I have to blame Deathbringer for the death of your mother but really, I have no excuse. No matter how badly I wish I could undo it. I don't expect you to forgive me, Styra, but I still want to do the best I can in taking care of you and training you."

I stood in shock at her speech. I had literally no idea what to say, this woman who I had always feared and known as an unemotional monster had just completely broken down in front of me. For probably the first time in my life…I saw Stella Khai as a human.

A hand appeared on my shoulder, and I looked back to see a familiar face.

"Even if we can't forgive her…I think you should give her a chance, Big Sis," the teenager dressed in an orange and black mini dress said.

"Imou…"

She was the one girl I trusted more than anyone in this galaxy. The main reason being, well, because she's literally me.

The girl I call Imou was quite literally my younger self. At first, I had assumed she was like an imaginary friend because she started appearing when I was on Shelter, where I was all alone the entire time. No one else could see her. But when I left Shelter, I found that one person _could_ see her.

That one person was none other than Stella Khai. Stella being able to see Imou made me realise she wasn't so much of an imaginary friend, more an invisible secondary presence in the Force.

Imou typically appeared as either my 9-year-old self or my 16-year-old self, depending on the situation.

Currently, it was 16-year-old me.

I turned back to Stella, trembling slightly.

"F-Fine… I don't forgive you but…I'll be nicer…" I slowly said.

Stella gave me quite possibly the warmest smile I had ever seen grace her face. It was enough to make it hard to believe this was the same monster that killed Vestara Khai.

"Come on, we should get back. The Sleeping Knights have a mission…and I want you to come along,"

"Really?!" I perked up.

She giggled. "Yeah, really. It won't be easy, but I think you've got what it takes."

**!=-{+}-=!**

I walked into the planning room of Arendelle castle behind Stella and my mother. The rest of the Sleeping Knights were already present.

"Stella, welcome back. I heard about Amea…I'm sorry…" Sonia said.

Stella shook her head. "She's not gone. Not forever. I'll bring her back, I just need to figure out how to," pausing, she glanced around. "What of Millie's Master's 'informant', did you find them?"

Savara and Tarev shook their heads. "Nah, nothing. They likely showed up while we were in Qeios, figured out you lied to them and reported back,"

"On the plus side, we know where we're needed now. Earlier, my contacts told me about reports from the GA that indicated they were making a move on some new world in the outskirts of the unknown regions. A _certain someone_ overheard the report," Sonia gestured for someone to enter and, to my surprise, Xana Meral, the leader of a Qeian Girl-Rock group called the Daughters of Darkness entered the room. The rest of the Daughters followed behind; Sino Jazz, Lye Ceila and Jae Emi.

"The world mentioned is where we're from. It's also where one of your former enemies came from, Aka Redthorne. Though I think you knew him better as-"

"Lachie Ren…" Stella interrupted.

Xana looked at Stella curiously. "You knew?"

"It was in a vision I had, back when I fought off Deathbringer. Lachie appeared to me, but he called himself Aka Redthorne," Stella explained.

"Well, yeah. His name was Aka Redthorne, a Huntsman-in-training from Haven Academy, Mistral. Leader of Team AZID. He was also exiled for committing crimes against the kingdoms, hence why he was out in the galaxy," Xana said.

"Wait wait wait, he was exiled because he committed crimes? So, what about you girls?" Jane questioned suspiciously.

"You don't have to worry about us, we left Remnant by our own volition. Specifically, we stowed away in the pod that Aka was sent in," Sino offered.

"That raises more questions," Savara commented.

"You always wondered what we meant when we said we're Faunus. Faunus were very…well, there's a lot of racism on Remnant. We were given a small island in the corner of Remnant after the Great War and told to make do. Needless to say, our species weren't too happy. The Faunus War broke out, and that's why we left," Xana explained.

"The fact that the world is called 'Remnant' doesn't ease my worries. Anyway, supposedly the GA is going there. So, Xana, if you could tell us anything about your homeworld, we would appreciate it," Sonia stated.

"The world of Remnant is a very dangerous place. Most people live within four main kingdoms, and outside their walls, many villages don't survive long. Picture the demon beasts you have on this world, but far more dangerous and common. We call them Grimm. The Creatures of Grimm are strongly attracted to negative emotions, so if there's ever any panic for whatever reason, you can be sure the Grimm will show up. To combat this, each kingdom has a Huntsman Academy where Huntsmen and Huntresses are trained to fight off the Grimm. Atlas Academy in Mantle, Haven Academy in Mistral, Beacon Academy in Vale and Shade Academy in Vacuo."

The Knights all looked at each other.

"I'm surprised more people don't leave the planet," Stella commented.

"We don't have space travel. Or, not really. Extremely dangerous criminals, like Aka, are sent off-world in Prison Capsules. These capsules preserve the person, but even so, I don't think most of the officials in Mantle that do it expect them to survive. Often times I'm pretty sure they don't. It's rare exceptions that do, though Aka survived because we were piloting and safely made it to a nearby civilised planet. It's not a very pleasant punishment honestly, thankfully they don't do it often. To the point where I can name every criminal sent off-world in the 100 years before we left. Diam Skyler, Sinna Livi, Grey Gran, Ciane Zaff, Kurome Beranil and Aka Redthorne. I doubt any of them are alive honestly, pretty sure the only two of their teams that could still be alive are Kurome's, Team SMWK, and Aka's, Team AZID," Xana explained.

I felt an odd feeling coming from my mother in the Force. The other Knights noticed too, as everyone glanced over at her.

"Lyla? What's wrong?" Felix asked.

"…I recognise that name…Kurome Beranil…"

"Wait, really?! Have you met her?!" Lye exclaimed.

"I don't know… But…I don't have any memories from before the Nightsisters found me, I get the feeling I know it from before then," Lyla said.

Xana seemed to realise something. "The criminals' memories get wiped as a side effect of the Prison Capsules, it's possible that you actually _are_ Kurome Beranil…though you're a lot younger than you should be."

"I was killed when I was 21 and brought back about 21 years later at the same age by the Blooded Reaper. Funnily enough, I was in hiding for exactly 21 years after that before the Sleeping Knights found me. So, I'm technically 81 years old, even though physically I'm only 60," Mother explained.

"Damn, you look pretty good for 60. But yeah, 81 matches up with how old Kurome should be… Wow, I would never have pinned you as the same girl that tried to assassinate a Schnee," Xana said, seemingly in awe for some reason.

"To be honest, that doesn't surprise me. Lyla did try to kill our parents before they killed her that first time," Rika added.

_So, I share the blood of someone from this Remnant place… Interesting._

Xana's expression changed. "I'm also surprised you're talking to us so pleasantly. You're one of the bastards from Mantle who hate us Faunus. And don't think you were one who was sympathetic towards us, I know your track record at Atlas Academy. You threatened to kill someone just because you found out they were a Faunus."

Mother suddenly looked surprised. "O-Oh… Well…I can assure you I've changed since I was found by the Nightsisters. I'm a Sleeping Knight now, I don't have any intentions of being racist towards you or your species."

The Daughters looked amongst each other, before Xana sighed. "I know. You just have to understand that we still have strong trust issues towards anyone from Mantle, even 30 years after we left Remnant."

Lyla nodded. "Understandable. I imagine the racism against non-humans on this world hasn't helped."

"Not really…" Xana admitted.

Silence fell over the room.

"Guess we're going to Remnant then. Might help Lyla remember her old life too," Sonia eventually said, trying to break the silence.

"Yeah, might be time we returned home too," the Daughters agreed.

_Home for us as well, I guess._

_**Stella Khai's POV:**_

The rest of the Knights and the Daughters of Darkness left the room as I took a deep breath, connecting the HoloProjector to a call I knew would be difficult.

"Miss Ste-ah, I mean… Stella, what's up? Where's Amea?" Kaitlyn Herle's voice pained me with how chipper she was.

_Fuck…I'm not ready for this…_

"Uh…well…I'm honestly not sure how to tell you this…" I groaned, trying to hold myself from crying again.

Kaitlyn immediately knew something was wrong. "What happened, Stel?"

"Well…Amea's kinda…" I paused and took another deep breath. "Amea's not in this world right now. I'm not going to say she's dead, because I can still feel that she's alive, she's just…I can't contact her. This man calling himself Xaquin Rodis appeared and attacked us, he got a hit off on Amea and sent her to a place I think he called Kingdom Shadow. I tried to stop him but…he got away."

Kaitlyn stood in silence for a while, and I got scared as to how she'd react.

"But…she's not dead, right…?" the Zaloudekian Knight quietly asked.

I shook my head. "I can still feel her…I know she's alive… If I can do something about Xaquin I should be able to figure out what to do but…I don't know where he is."

A look of determination similar to mine earlier came over her face. "Then I'm going to help you. I can't fight him like you can, but I will do everything in my power to find out anything I can about Xaquin and Kingdom Shadow."

I was a bit surprised at her determination, but smirked. "Thank you, Kait. I really appreciate your help. Might be a good idea to keep this in the shadows from the public, not sure how Zaloudek would feel about their Queen going missing and their Princess having to go off-world at the same time."

Kaitlyn nodded. "You got it. We're gonna get our girl back, together."

"Yeah, together."

**!=-{+}-=!**

"Stella!" Sonia called out. I headed over to where she was with the _Night Fury_, _Kesh Wanderer_ and a Q-98 _Laurne_-class shuttle.

We were preparing the _Scarlet Eviscerator_ and two Qeian Imperial cruisers, the _Forever Endeavour_ and the _Intervention_, which ironically was actually Lachie Ren's old ship, the _Dead Grave_.

"What's up, Sonia?" I asked.

"This. Was making it for another reason, but since talking to Xana about Remnant I figured I'd give it to you now. It's a Booster Unit. Essentially a jet-pack with retractable wings."

I just stared at her, knowing exactly where she got it.

"Really… Same game that Felix got the _Brunhilde_ from…" I couldn't help but laugh though.

"Well, can you really complain?" Sonia smirked.

I shook my head. "Not really. Thanks, Sonia."

I noticed Lyla out of the corner of my eye and excused myself, going over to her.

"Ly, you all good?" I enquired.

"Yeah, just wondering what it'll be like. If this really is the planet I grew up on, I mean," she said.

I saw something on her back under her cloak. "What's that?"

She pulled it out, and it appeared to be either a sword or blaster of some sort. "This is the only thing I had aside from my clothes when I woke up on Dathomir. I'm pretty sure it's my weapon from Remnant, but I don't particularly know how to use it. I kept it anyway because it's the only clue I had to my old life."

"Perhaps Xana or the other Daughters know how to use it," I suggested.

"I did wonder that, but they said they weren't Huntresses, they'd never wielded weapons. They also said it was likely something I had built myself, which means it's extremely old tech and made it less likely they'd be able to figure it out," Lyla admitted.

"So, your next option would be your old team. Team SMWK…" I figured.

"Yep. _That's_ going to be interesting. We'll see if they even remember me, it's been a good 63 years since I was apparently banished. Part of me is also worried that they're going to be criminals too, if what Xana said about me is true," she nodded.

"Well, they're 81 and we'll all be with you, doubt they can do much," I smirked.

Lyla chuckled to herself. "That's true."

We looked across the hangar, seeing fighters and even TSFs getting prepared. Off to the side, I noticed Styra and her other invisible self, Imou.

"I'm a little worried about Styra though. I don't know if she's ready for a mission like this," I admitted.

"Styra is immature, I'll admit that. But her skills are unquestionably good enough for this, she just needs to learn some tact."

I just nodded. The only way Styra was going to mature was by experiencing the truth of being a Sleeping Knight.

"General Khai, the _Scarlet Eviscerator_ is ready for the mission, Queen Jane and General Caster have reported that the _Intervention_ and _Forever Endeavour_ are both set to go as well," an officer said to us.

"Copy that. Let's get going," I nodded.

He said something into his commlink, confirming with Jane on the _Intervention_ and Clarissa on the _Forever Endeavour_ that we were ready. Soon after, I felt the ship leaving the atmosphere.

Lyla and I made our way to the bridge.

"Rika, ready for the jump?" I asked.

"Hell yeah," Rika smirked.

And with that, the three ships began the hyperspace journey to the complete opposite side of the galaxy.

Though things didn't seem to be going our way. Just an hour after we left, we got a report from Earth.

"Stella! Slight problem!" Rika called.

"What now?"

"I think the 'informant' we kept wondering about did some research. The GA is launching an attack on East Medoua. Specifically, Kumazawa, Amea's hometown," she reported.

"Son of a fucking bitch… Contact Commander Herle, let her know."

"On it."

_This day just keeps getting better, doesn't it._

_**Yuko Masuda's POV:**_

I yawned and stretched, covering my eyes as the morning light shone through the window.

I was back in Kumazawa, to my slight surprise. It was a definite confirmation that the night before hadn't just been a dream, and that just made me excited.

_I'm gonna learn magic… Hell yeah!_

I had a very quick breakfast and rushed out the door to school.

When I arrived, I almost immediately spotted Kae.

"Kae-chan!"

The girl turned to me and smiled.

"Hey, Yuko-chan."

"What's with the outfit? Not exactly school uniform is it?" I asked. Kae was wearing a black suit jacket and skirt with lots of blue trim. There were blue rose patterns stitched into her jacket too, and she had a red ribbon around her neck.

"We're going out today, so I'm wearing my combat attire. And yes, I know it doesn't look like combat clothing, but it works," she chuckled. "Oh, by the way, here. Votrum bastard sword. It's not coated in anything so it's the normal votrum colour, but that's fine. I did also get you in the class, so you'll be coming with us."

I was barely able to contain my excitement as I put on the harness that the sheath was attached to.

"We'll be fighting basic demon beasts today. Stay with me and I'll keep you safe."

"Got it!" I grinned.

**!=-{+}-=!**

"I hope you kids are ready, things are about to get dangerous," said the junior knight that was observing us, a young Neko by the name of Satoshi Nerriss.

"Yes sir," the students responded.

"Remember, just stay by me. Don't take too many risks," Kae whispered to me.

I nodded.

We were a few kilometres outside Kumazawa in a controlled area where some professionals were slowly guiding some captured demon beasts to our location.

Sure enough, the first wave of about five demon beasts came out of the trees.

Kae unsheathed her sword, and I imitated her.

"Remember, magic attacks first. Only engage in close-range if absolutely necessary," Shime-sensei instructed.

Kae, of course, was already in the process of casting a spell. "_Exterminiteus Pestiegris Flarectus Increneris_," a flare shot out from her hand, quickly turning into a fireball. It hit a demon beast head-on and it, as well as the surrounding beasts, caught fire.

"Good shot, Tamura-san," Shime-sensei nodded.

I reached out and tried an incantation I had memorised earlier. "Divii Exteortia Lagotum."

A few seconds passed, and nothing happened.

"Masuda-san, you need to learn the meaning of the spell and focus on your mana. Don't worry, I wouldn't expect you to get it straight away. I'll help you with training when we get back to school. For now, stick to using your sword. You're lucky that incantation did nothing, there's a chance of backfire if you mess them up," Shime-sensei alerted.

"R-Right…sorry, Sensei."

"Here, like this," Kae smiled. "_Divii Exteortia Lagotum_," a stream of water shot out and washed the demon beasts back, making them fall over from the force of the current.

"Demon beasts flanking us," yelled one of the students.

I turned and saw one already mid-pounce coming straight at me.

Kae's sword slashed at it and knocked it away from me. It wasn't quite dead, so I gathered my courage and brought my sword down into the beast's stomach.

_Oh my god, that was scary…_

Thankfully, it seemed like we beat the wave pretty quickly.

But Shime and Satoshi seemed to be worried. "Guys, please tell me the lack of demon beasts now is intentional," Satoshi said into a commlink.

"Training is over. We have a real emergency, Kumazawa is under attack. Galactic Alliance Guard forces by the looks of it," came another voice.

Everyone looked shocked, including Kae.

She noticed my confused look. "The GA are supposed to be the good guys, they're the ones from Coruscant. There's no reason for them to attack our town,"

It was when I heard an explosion and saw a giant starship overhead that I realised just how bad the situation was.

"Okay class, you're to stay here where it's safe. Do not return to Kumazawa until it's safe," Satoshi ordered, before heading back to town.

There was a panic amongst the students and Shime tried to calm everyone down. In the confusion, Kae grabbed my arm and pulled me aside.

"I have to go back. My little brother is at home with a babysitter who has no experience with this sort of thing. Yuko, I would recommend you stay here, but I'm still going to ask if you want to come with me."

I stood there for a moment, trying to think of what to do.

_On one hand, I don't want Kae to go alone…on the other, I have no experience with this either._

"Coming or not, I'm going now," she whispered, and turned to leave.

"Oh, what the hell, let's go," I sighed and followed her.

**!=-{+}-=!**

As soon as we got back into Kumazawa, we had to avoid getting shot by blaster fire.

"Fuck!" I heard the voice of Satoshi Nerriss yell.

"Crap, Nerriss-sama is injured. I can heal him, but I need cover," Kae groaned.

I looked around and saw an assault rifle next to a dead knight. I quickly grabbed it with some of the ammo the knight was holding.

"I can cover you with this, so go," I said.

She nodded and ran out to where Satoshi was. I started firing at the GAG soldiers, slightly surprised that the rifle wasn't a laser gun but rather a typical live-ammo weapon from our world. Even so, it still seemed to be effective.

I did my best to push down the feeling of nausea due to the fact that I was shooting actual humans, I knew if I stopped then my best friend would die.

"_Incantium Restorius_."

The blaster burns on Satoshi's leg began to heal quickly with Kae's magic.

"Thank you, Tamura-san, but you shouldn't be here," he said.

"I have to make sure my brother is safe, please understand."

He gave a defeated sigh. "Very well. But I'll escort you, I'm not letting students go alone."

"Fine by me," Kae grinned.

"First…" he grabbed his commlink. "Onee-chan, come in."

There was a pause.

"Satoshi-kun?" a human girl's hologram appeared.

"Kaitlyn-san? Where's Onee-chan?"

"Uhh…Amea-chan is…out, she won't be back for a while. Same goes for Stella-chan. Kad and I are running the Kingdom until she does."

_Running the kingdom…?_

"Oh… Well, that's fine. You can help just as much. Our hometown is under attack by the GA, I have no idea why. But our knights are outmatched."

"I know, I got an alert about it from the _Scarlet Eviscerator_. Zaloudek soldiers are already on their way. Just stay alive, Sato-kun!"

"I'll try."

The hologram disappeared and he turned to us again.

"Wait wait, your sister is the Queen of Zaloudek, Amea Zaloudek?!" Kae exclaimed.

"Yeah, she grew up here as Amea Nerriss though. She's my step-sister."

_Whoa…that's crazy!_

We were interrupted by more blaster fire.

"Alright, where's your brother?"

"My house is near the other side of town. Hard to miss," Kae replied.

"Lead the way, Kae-chan," I said.

**!=-{+}-=!**

Kae was right about her house being hard to miss. We were nearly on the Western edge of Kumazawa when Kae pointed to a giant fricking mansion and said: "There, Korin-kun's in there. Hopefully, he's still safe."

"Then let's go!" I called, beginning to make my way towards the house before Satoshi pulled me back behind cover. A small explosion occurred where I had just been standing.

Satoshi began firing at a group of the GAG that were pinning us down, and I moved to aid him.

I heard Kae murmuring a spell, before streaks of light shot out of her hand and zig-zagged their way to the enemies, taking out about ten of them at once.

"Incoming X-Wings," Satoshi warned.

The young knight cast his weapon aside and chanted a complex spell that formed a barrier over us.

A barrage of cannon-fire from the X-Wings hit the barrier. It held for a while, but the last shot got through and hit near Kae, sending her flying.

"KAE!" I screamed.

A Neko girl came from nowhere and caught Kae, quickly casting a healing spell over her, before turning to the GAG in front of us.

"Alright then, about time these fucking wankers got the fuck out of my motherfucking town, or better yet, planet," she cursed, sending blasts of magic at the group.

The GAG quickly retreated, and the new girl came over to us. Now that I could get a good look at her, she looked like a really young girl, maybe about 12 or 13. Though I figured that wouldn't be the case after seeing Fumina-sensei.

She had bright red hair and pale skin and was actually quite cute. But what caught my attention was the eyes. She was just like me. She was heterochromatic. But she wasn't hiding it, and I recalled what Kae had said about eyes like ours in this world.

"_Heterochromatic eyes are somewhat unusual even in this world. Often if you have them, it means you have some sort of special power like magic detection or aura reading. You're one of the rare cases of basic heterochromia."_

This girl's left eye was red, while her right was yellow. I knew there was no way it was normal heterochromia like mine, which meant she most likely had special powers.

"Faith-sama…thanks for stepping in," Satoshi panted, out of breath from exerting so much mana.

"Eh, I'm always saving your fucking asses. Nothing new. Doesn't mean I don't like being thanked though," the girl, Faith, replied with a smirk.

Satoshi chuckled. "Girls, this is Faith Autumn. She often babysat me, and also took care of my sister when _she_ was growing up. She's a Cait Sith fairy-Neko half-blood."

"I give to you the warmest welcome that my cold, cold heart can award. Hey fuckers, how's it going?... Maybe I should try that one again, eh I'm sure it's fine, right?" she greeted.

Her extreme sarcasm and foul language were a bit off-putting coming from the mouth of a girl who looked younger than me, and all I could manage was a quiet "H-Hello…" before quickly moving over to Kae to make sure she was okay.

"Don't be scared of little ol' me, not like I'm gonna slowly break every bone in both your legs and leave you to either drown or get eaten in a shark tank. The sharks haven't been fed for days in case you were wondering. I feel like I'm getting a tad off-topic," she grinned.

"Geeze, Faith… Don't mind her, she's not serious when she says that stuff. It's pretty normal for her," Satoshi interjected.

Faith just chuckled.

_She's…a bit scary._

"Kae, are you okay?" I asked.

The Blue Lord coughed, slowly opening her eyes. "Y-Yeah…I'm not too badly hurt."

"Think you can stand?"

She nodded, using my shoulder to pull herself up to her feet.

"Come on, let's get Korin-kun and get to safety," she offered.

We both entered the house while Satoshi and Faith stood guard outside.

"Nahoko-chan! Is Korin-kun okay?" Kae enquired when she saw the babysitter.

This girl at least looked to be in her twenties, but I still didn't know how to tell a Neko's age so she could have been way older.

Nahoko nodded. "Yes, Kae-chan. Korin-kun is alright. We had to hide since the GA raided the house."

"I can see that… Come on, we need to get you both to safety," Kae told her.

Nahoko grabbed the 8-year-old Korin Tamura and followed us back outside.

"We need to get out of here," Kae said.

"Well I have a ride," Faith clapped. "Come on peasants."

We all followed her until we came to a small hangar-bay where a small-sized shuttle sat. We all boarded, Faith going to the pilot's seat. To my surprise, Kae took up the co-pilot's seat.

When we all looked at her curiously, she simply responded with "What? I'm an amateur pilot, I just need some more practice."

Faith shrugged, accepting the statement and powered the ship up.

As the shuttle took off, we saw new ships coming in.

"Zaloudek. Looks like Kait-chan was able to spare a lot of forces," Satoshi commented.

"Kait? The fuck happened to Amea? They're _her_ forces," Faith enquired, making sure Korin was out of ear-shot with Nahoko.

"I'm not sure, apparently Onee-chan and Stella-chan are both busy so Kaitlyn-chan and Kadmiel-san are in charge," Satoshi told her.

"With that amount of forces, it shouldn't take long to push the GA out of Kumazawa," Kae said.

"We can only hope they don't send reinforcements."

A couple of minutes later, Kae brought out a communicator.

"Aki-chan, come in," she urged.

A few seconds passed.

"Kae-chan, it's been a little while," came a somewhat familiar voice. The voice belonged to Aki Terada, a girl who was a few grades above us in the real world.

"Indeed. The GA attacked Kumazawa, I'm not sure what to do now," Kae sighed.

"They actually attacked? Holy crap… I was hoping you wouldn't be dragged into this fight but… As you know, I'm with the Confederation. We just received word that the GA are moving to a new planet called Remnant, we're following them there. I have a bad feeling about this though, like we're gonna need all the help we can get…"

Kae glanced back at me. "I may not be able to help just yet… Yuko-chan's here now, so I'm going to help her train. But…once she's ready, we'll come help you on Remnant."

"I look forward to it, Kae. Good luck."

"Good luck to you too."

_**Sector 5: Facing Past Trepidations**_

_**Stella Khai's POV:**_

**Wake**

I breathed out with a big sigh as I parked up behind Tarev's black and red 2050 Walkinshaw Colorado, cutting the grumbling V8 engine of my black and blue 2077 Australis Qrow ZV54.

The elder Arendelle twin exited his house to greet me as the sound of my muscle car's loud engine alerted him to my arrival.

"Stel, thanks for taking the time to come by," Tarev smiled weakly.

"You feelin' okay, Tarev?" I enquired, worried about the man's emotional state after receiving a rather distraught text from him.

"Better than before, but seriously, this whole mess is fucking hard to deal with," he sighed.

I pulled the younger man into a hug. "I can imagine… I thought you had gotten past it though?"

"I had…but then she showed up again and it all came rushing back."

"Even after a year and a half, she has that much of an effect on you, huh?" I whispered.

He nodded slightly.

"Christ, you fell hard, boy. She really had you wrapped around her finger," I groaned.

"I can't help it that being with Lexi was the happiest I'd ever been…"

"I know, I know. It's not your fault, she's the one that cheated and betrayed you."

Lexi Graham. The girl who broke Tarev Arendelle's heart.

The two had been tight for a long time, but one day around the beginning of last year, Tarev discovered that Lexi was cheating on him. He had become extremely depressed after that, to the point he nearly fell to the Dark Side in the Dream Realm. I had been the one to notice it first, so I immediately confronted him about it and tried to cheer him up. By the time we had moved to Corellia, he seemed to be at least a little better. But clearly, it only took Lexi showing up again for him to relapse.

"Tarev, you know I'm gonna do whatever I can to make you forget that girl. I'm not gonna make the same mistake of letting someone fall into depression from a rejection again," I told him.

He glanced at me. "Again?"

My breath slightly hitched in my throat when I realised what I had just let slip. "Uh…yeah. Probably about time I tell someone…" I took a deep breath. "Twenty-two years ago, the year after we fought Lachie Ren, a girl approached me. Her name was Ayla Vinson, a Jedi Knight born in Zelwinds, you and the others talked to her a couple of times, but I doubt you remember her. Well, she came up to me and confessed to having a crush on me. I was dating Felix already so of course, I had to turn her down, but she took it a lot harder than I expected. Turns out this girl was a little obsessed with me. A few days after I rejected her, she disappeared. I never saw her again, and to this day I don't know what happened to her. Rumours say she committed suicide, and that's really the only thing I can think of that would have happened. Otherwise, I probably would have seen her at some point since then. So of course I want to help you, the idea of you killing yourself is way too hard for me to take. I'm gonna stay by your side, Tarev. You can count on me."

Tarev was slightly surprised at the story. "I…actually do remember Ayla. I thought it strange that she vanished one day, but what you just said makes it a bit clearer," he paused for a second, before the weak smile from earlier returned to his face. "But don't worry, as depressed as Lexi has made me, I'm more likely to turn than commit suicide. And thankfully you've prevented that from happening too so far."

I gave him a faint grin. "Good. I don't think your sister would be too pleased with me if I let you become our enemy."

He just chuckled. "Sav would probably beat the shit out of me if I let myself become that."

"This is true," I laughed. "Well, looks like this'll be the day. We arrive at Remnant tonight; I hope you're armed and ready for whatever comes up."

"Yeah, all that matters now is that we find out what Jacen is planning, stop him and go home," Tarev smiled.

_**Lyla Klal's POV:**_

**Sleep**

I sensed a new presence entering the _Kesh Wanderer_ while I meditated and opened my eyes to see Lara, smiling.

"How're you feeling, Lara?" I asked gently.

"Better, thanks to Matt. A little bit of time in EGO helped me take out my stress. I turned a bit battle medic, to many people's surprise. They didn't expect a Ninja / Healer to go front lines and get MVP against a dungeon boss," she giggled.

"And yet you came back to this realm rather early," I noted.

"Yeah, I felt like turning in early. Plus, I wanted to talk to you. Care to take a walk?"

I nodded, getting up and following the younger woman out of the yacht and through the many corridors that made up the _Scarlet Eviscerator_.

"So…Remnant, huh? Are you scared of going back home?"

Was I scared… That question had been constantly crossing me since Xana first mentioned the possibility.

"It's… It's definitely hard to digest. But I'm probably more curious than anything to find out about this world. Am I scared at how the people of Remnant will react to me, a former convicted criminal that was essentially sentenced to death? A little bit. But I have to face it. If Kurome Beranil is my past, then I have to stare her in the eyes and learn the truth about her. Though… I gotta say, the idea of meeting Team SMWK is… I'm not sure what they're like, I have no idea what sort of connection they had with Kurome. This could very well end badly, but I'm ready for anything. I'm just afraid of how Styra will take all this," I sighed.

Lara chuckled a little bit. "Well, you're certainly braver than I am about facing the past. Every time I close my eyes…she's there. Her emotionless face…her purple flame…that damn scythe," Lara shivered slightly. "And, I hate to say it, but as much as I love my cousin, Stella does remind me of Estella sometimes…" she sighed.

I looked at the 38-year-old. "You're not the only one that was scarred from that year. We all took a blow, some more than others. If you go ask Stella how she feels, I can guarantee she has just as many nightmares about Estella as she does about Ren and Deathbringer."

"Stella's been through more than any of us, that is true. It's obvious even in the Wake. You know, when we were kids, Stella was one of the quirkiest, most hyperactive and mischievous girls I knew. She was always getting us in trouble, but I couldn't help going along with her. After we faced Lachie, she managed to keep the façade up, but I knew she had taken a hard hit. When Deathbringer came up, she was probably the most helpless I had ever seen her. And Estella took a lot out of her as well. It's hard to notice here, but over there it's plain as day, even if she tries to hide it. Just ask Ame-…ah…never mind…I guess this guy that took Amea away is just gonna be putting even more strain on Stel…" Lara groaned.

I couldn't help but chuckle at the description of what Stella used to be like. "I can't imagine Stel being hyperactive at all. Still, I have noticed a difference in her personality from when I first met her to now. She's matured a lot, but I worry about her mental strength. I know she told us about her connection to Amea, and how up to now, that's been a big help. But having lost Amea, it's entirely possible Stella could crumble. So, we have to be there for her. We have to be there for all of the team really, including you and me. I've had my fair share of hardships too, as you know."

Lara was about to reply when a scream could be heard from a room in the hallway.

We both rushed to the room, noting it was Sally's before we opened the door, weapons in-hand.

I turned the light on, scanning the room with the Force. I relaxed a little when I didn't sense or see anyone aside from Sally, still asleep in her bed. She was tossing and turning though, mumbling incoherently.

"Nightmare… I guess you were right, we all took a blow," Lara sighed.

"No…mum…" Sally groaned.

I sighed, putting my sabre back on my belt.

"Nightmares about her mother. Figures… Poor girl."

I sensed a disturbance coming from Sally. The next moment, Lara clutched at her throat.

_Shit, what?!_

Sally's hand reached out to Lara in an all too familiar gesture. I quickly rushed to Sally's side, shaking her wildly. Lara dropped to the floor and I heard her gasping for breath. Sally had released her.

Suddenly though, I was forced back into the wall with a loud crash.

The noise awakened the young Skywalker as her eyes shot open, darting around the room in a panic until landing on me. A tinge of horror spread through me as I realised, they were a bright yellow.

There was a sudden blue blur as Lara moved to the bed in a flash, clutching Sally in her arms, trying to bring the woman out of her trance.

"L-Lara…? Lyla…?" Sally whispered, clearly distressed. Tears started to fall down her cheeks as her eyes returned to their normal blue.

"Sally…it's okay. We're here," Lara cooed, gently rubbing Sally's back.

"I'm so sorry…" Sally cried, burying her face into the crook of Lara's neck.

"It's okay, Sal. Would you like to come have something to eat with us?" I asked the panicked girl.

Sally nodded slightly. "Y-Yeah… That sounds good…"

I smiled, lending her a hand to get out of bed. Though she ended up hugging me too, I just whispered warmly into her ear to calm her down.

This was going to be a long day…

**!=-{+}-=!**

It was afternoon before we finally came out of hyperspace for the last time. The sight of a broken moon orbiting an Earth-like planet was a relief to many of the crew, signalling the end of a nearly month-long trip across the galaxy, much of which was consumed by stressful mini-jumps through the unknown region to avoid black holes and other anomalies.

"There it is…home…" Xana sighed, standing beside me.

"Keep the cruisers away from the planet just-in-case the GA spot us, hide them behind the moon. We'll go down in shuttles and scout it out. If we need help, we'll call in for our army," Stella ordered. "Now, Xana, where would you recommend we land?"

The Faunus thought for a moment.

"Vale may be a good place to start. I don't trust Mantle, and neither Mistral nor Vacuo are all too pleasant if I recall correctly. Vale is probably our best bet," she suggested.

"Alright. Let's head down to the _Night Fury_, you can guide us to Vale."

I followed the rest of the Sleeping Knights present on the _Scarlet Eviscerator_ down to the hangar. While Rika, Felix, Stella and Sally boarded the _Night Fury_ with the Daughters of Darkness, I headed onto the _Kesh Wanderer_ with Lara, Matt, Styra and Sonia.

Jane, Tarev and Savara were on the _Intervention_ and would be heading down with the _Phantom of the Night_, while Clarissa was over on the _Forever Endeavour_ with the _Night Slicer_. She would be bringing a small group of Virtcast battle droids just to guard the ships while we were out exploring.

"Here we go. Time to say hello to the locals," Lara sighed.

We carefully guided the _Kesh Wanderer_ out of the hangar, following the _Night Fury_ past the _Harrower_-class Dreadnaught, _Intervention_.

With the _Phantom_ and the _Night Slicer_ falling into line with us, we emerged from the shadow of the moon and began our descent.

Keeping an eye on the scanners for any GA ships, our small formation entered the atmosphere and carefully we came down to the surface, landing not far from a large city.

"I guess that's Vale," Sonia noted.

"Yeah, but didn't they mention there were Grimm outside the Kingdom walls? Landing here seems like a bad idea," Matt voiced.

"What? You scared of a glorified demon beast?" Styra smirked.

"You realise we don't actually know _how_ glorified the Grimm are compared to our demon beasts, right?" Lara reminded her.

"Eh, who cares. We'll fuck them up either way."

Sonia chuckled. "Well, she's not wrong."

"Grimm or not, landing four unknown ships in Vale would probably cause a commotion. We don't need to draw too much attention to ourselves," I added.

Lara nodded in agreement. "Lyla's right. Keeping ourselves off the locals' radar means there'll be less of a chance the GA will notice us."

Though speaking of Grimm, cannon-fire caught my attention as the _Phantom of the Night_ avoided a giant black bird creature, blasting it out of the sky.

"Well, they're definitely bigger than demon beasts," Lara noted.

We all disembarked from the yacht, the shine of the sleek red and silver _Courier_-class reflecting light onto the two other jet-black shuttles and the dark grey _Night Fury_, specifically lighting up the Sleeping Knights logos on each of them.

"Well that was fucking huge," Tarev said as soon as everyone converged to the centre of the ring of ships.

"That, Your Majesty, was a Nevermore. One of the most common avian Grimm," Sino pointed out.

"Well, we best be getting to Vale. Hopefully, we blend in well enough," Jane said.

Everyone's guard went up the second we heard gunfire.

"North, I sense five presences. I…think, anyway… The Dark Side clouds this world, it's hard to make out anything," Felix commented.

"You are correct, there's five. My experience with the Dark Side makes this a bit easier," I nodded. "A lot of darkness surrounds them though, but I don't think it's them specifically. Before with the Nevermore, I noticed it was strong in the Dark Side of the Force. Almost as if it was created by the Force itself."

"Indeed. Something about this world is strong in the Force. Even the Daughters of Darkness are abundant in the Light, the five newcomers feel strong in the Force too," Stella alerted.

"They're likely in a fight with Grimm, we should go help them," Xana offered.

Everyone was in agreement with the eldest Daughter as we made our way towards the gunfire, leaving Sebastian's battle droids to guard our ships.

We soon saw a small group of people fending off Grimm. Felix immediately grabbed his dual DC-17m blasters, shooting the beasts as they got near the small group. Sonia followed suit with her DC-15S.

Styra rushed in, lightsabre igniting and slashing at every Grimm that came near her. I ignited my own sabre, cutting one of the black creatures in half and using the Force to knock another three away. Unknown instincts automatically kicked in upon being in combat with the Creatures of Grimm, another obvious hint that I was from this world.

I unleashed a flurry of attacks, destroying a group of the black and white creatures like it was normal for me, even amongst the smoke emanating from their bodies as they disintegrated.

The sound of a darksabre igniting caught my attention and I saw Sonia slice down a huge bear-like Grimm as it took a swing at me.

"These things are hard to sense in the Force," Lara complained.

"Agreed, we have to be careful," Rika groaned, yellow blade through the head of one of the wolf-like Grimm.

A quick glance back at the group we were aiding, and I suddenly hoped the few members of our group experiencing PTSD from Estella wouldn't notice the girl who was dressed in red right now, as she was now wielding a huge scythe.

Unfortunately, I saw Lara freeze up. Following her gaze, she was indeed looking directly at the young scythe-wielder.

I also recalled with horror something that Xana had said about the Grimm.

Sure enough, many of the Grimm focused their attention on the defenceless blue-haired girl.

_Ah, crap._

"Lara, snap out of it!" I yelled.

Stella heard me and glanced over at her cousin. Noticing the freeze-up, she sent out a huge blast in the Force. I had to keep myself steady to avoid getting knocked back. Fortunately, her power outburst eliminated a lot of the Grimm around us. Sonia, Felix and the four girls from the other group shot the remaining Grimm while I quickly rushed over to Lara to calm her down.

"Lara, what happened?" Stella enquired, slightly panicked at seeing Lara in her current state.

"I think she saw that gi-" I was cut off by a high-pitched voice.

"Thanks, guys, that was almost pretty bad."

The girl with the scythe was walking over to us.

And Stella now took notice of her.

Immediately, her Black Blade was back in her hand and she rushed at the poor girl. A terrified squeal came from the black and red-haired girl as Stella's eye flame ignited and she quickly moved to block the charge.

"STELLA!" I yelled, using the Force to pull her down. "It's not Estella, it's just a girl with a scythe. Okay?"

The rest of the girls and the man accompanying them were on guard, weapons pointed at Stella.

"I am truly sorry for her behaviour. She and a couple of our other members had a pretty bad run-in with a scythe-wielder a while back. We mean you no harm, I assure you," I quickly told the group.

A small disturbance in the Force made me reach out and stop Sally from trying to choke the poor girl in front of me.

"Sally, Lara, Stella, you all need to take a breath. As I said, this girl is not Estella Noral. I doubt she's as indestructible as Estella, I also doubt her scythe would short-circuit a lightsabre. Looks like normal steel to me," I took the motherly tone I often took with the girls, trying to prevent them from harming an innocent girl.

The scythe folded away into a compact little thing that she put on her back. "She's right, I don't want to hurt anyone here. My name's Ruby Rose, I'm just a Huntress-in-training at Beacon, I'm sorry for scaring you, Crescent Rose is just carbon-fibre and titanium, nothing overly special that could short-circuit any sort of energy weapons," the girl spoke really quickly, seemingly forgetting to breathe.

_Ruby Rose, and her colours are all red. Why does that not surprise me?_

"Okay, you also need to take a breath," I jokingly smirked at the hyper girl. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Ruby. I'm Ly-…Kurome Klal, these are the Sleeping Knights. This girl is our leader, Stella Khai."

The rest of Ruby's group seemed to be less on-edge now, but I could sense they were still wary of Stella, Sally and Lara.

A girl wearing a white dress and jacket with white hair stepped forward. "Weiss Schnee," she offered, cautiously putting her rapier on her belt.

Next came a girl dressed in black and white with long black hair and a black bow on her head. "Blake," she also cautiously sheathed what appeared to be a sword mixed with a gun on her back.

The final girl had bright yellow hair and wore a leather jacket over a yellow shirt with black shorts. "I'm Yang, Ruby's older sister," she smirked. Yang was the only one who didn't seem overly cautious at the moment, the gauntlets on her wrists folding up without a second thought. "And the old man is Professor Oobleck, one of our teachers at Beacon."

"_Doctor_. Now, what are a bunch of men and ladies such as yourselves doing out here?" the teacher inquired.

Xana and her team stepped forward. "Our settlement was attacked by Grimm, we're making our way to Vale for safety," she lied.

"I see, that's terrible! Absolutely terrible! Come, we shall escort you back. We have about finished with our mission out here anyway," he nodded. Much like Ruby, his speech was way too fast and lacked pauses for breath.

By now, Stella had recovered from the mental breakdown. "T-Thank you, Doctor," she turned to Ruby. "I-I'm sorry for attacking you, I was out of turn. You seem like a nice girl, I feel pretty bad for making _that_ my first impression."

_Stella's nervous? Geeze, that really drained her…_

"Oh, no, don't worry! It's fine! Really. It's good to meet you, Stella," Ruby awkwardly replied.

_This has started…well._

**!=-{+}-=!**

We eventually reached Vale with the help of Ruby's team, which we learnt was, interestingly, called Team RWBY.

When arriving in Vale, Xana asked Doctor Oobleck if we could talk to the Headmaster of Beacon Academy, and as such, we now found ourselves standing in an interesting office at the top of Beacon Tower.

"Professor…Ozpin?" Xana questioned the man behind the one desk in the room.

"Yes, and who might you be?" the elder man enquired.

"My name is Xana Meral, this is my team, Sino Jazz, Lye Ceila and Jae Emi. We're from Menagerie. The rest of our friends here are the Sleeping Knights: Stella Khai, their leader, Rika Bailey, Matthew Tarn, Lara Tarn, Felix Calnore, Sally Skywalker, Clarissa Caster, Styra Klal, Lyla Klal, Sonia Borne, Jane Borne, Savara Arendelle and Tarev Arendelle. They…have some questions."

Stella was about to step forward, but I beat her to the punch. "Professor… Would you happen to know a Team SMWK? I believe they're from Mantle?"

A glint in Ozpin's eye was all I needed to know he recognised the team. "Yes, I know Team SMWK, however, I don't believe they've gone by that name for a long time. Ever since they lost one of their members-"

"Kurome Beranil. Sent off-world by Mantle officials, right?" I interrupted.

Now he seemed interested. "Indeed, though I have to inquire as to how you know about this."

I paused, glancing over at Xana.

The Daughter of Darkness noticed and stepped back in. "Mantle's way of sentencing people to death is sending them off-world in prison capsules, expecting them to die in the expanse of space. We know this because…" she quickly glanced at her team. "Because we stowed away in one of those capsules, thirty years ago, with the departure of Aka Redthorne of Mistral. We…believe…that Lyla here, might be Kurome. She has no memories, and we know for a fact that the prison capsules have that effect on their prisoners. Aka survived and became known as Lachie Ren."

"Lyla has more than proven herself as a good person since being re-awoken in the galaxy, whatever crimes she committed as Kurome are a thing of the past," Stella quickly added, much to my surprise.

_Thank you, Stel._

Ozpin had a look of intrigue on his face at this new information. "I imagine you wish to meet your old team then, Miss Beranil. However, you said your memories were lost. How did you find out about your past?"

"These girls mentioned the name Kurome and it sounded familiar to me. I have no memories, as Xana said, but she has told me what she knows about my past."

"And so logically you return to Remnant with a group of Knights who have never been here before," Ozpin concluded.

"Actually, Professor, we're here for a different reason. You wouldn't happen to have heard about something called the Galactic Alliance, or the GA for short. Or perhaps you've heard the name Jacen Solo, or Darth Caedus?" Stella asked.

Ozpin shook his head. "I'm afraid none of those are familiar to me, Miss Khai."

"Well, that's good, I guess. We might have a chance to keep the GA off Remnant. But they're not going to be too happy when they find the EA on Remnant…"

"So, you're saying this, Galactic Alliance intends to invade Remnant?"

"We're not sure, we just know they're coming. Their intentions are unclear. The galaxy is in a bit of turmoil right now, the GA used to be the good guys but then they went to war with the Confederation and then the Jedi separated from them, which left the GA under the control of Darth Caedus. Now it's a three-way civil war between the Galactic Alliance, the Confederation and the Jedi Coalition. And honestly, seeing as we don't particularly support any of those factions right now, the Earth Alliance could very well turn it into a four-way galactic civil war," Stella explained.

"I assume Miss Meral has told you about the Grimm, presuming you don't have Grimm wherever you come from. A war breaking out on Remnant would be a very bad idea."

"Yeah, she told us. But the Confederation and Jedi are planning on coming here too, so war would reach Remnant whether we were here or not. The only difference is the Earth Alliance could be Remnant's best chance. We have the Qeios Empire, the most advanced empire in the galaxy," she continued.

Ozpin thought over Stella's words, eventually seeming to come to a decision. "Very well. We will accept your aid. I still think this is a bad idea, however. Now, as for your team, Miss Beranil, two of them are instructors at Atlas Academy now. Luckily for you, they're on their way to Vale with their students for the Vytal Festival. They're due in tomorrow. The third left the team after you were exiled, I'm not entirely sure where she is now."

I nodded. "Thank you, Professor. I appreciate the help."

I fell back into the Sleeping Knights alongside my daughter.

"Well then, I assume it's fine to land our shuttles on Beacon Academy's grounds, just because it would be nicer than having them sit out in the forest where they're probably getting attacked by Grimm?" Stella questioned.

"I see no reason why it's not," Ozpin smiled.

"Thank you. Excuse me," she stepped back and brought out her commlink. "_Night Fury_, acknowledge. Khai, Stella. Come land on the school grounds, make sure the droids bring the _Night Slicer_, _Phantom of the Night_, and the _Kesh Wanderer_."

"_Night Fury_ setting course for your location…ETA: 2 minutes," came the robotic reply.

Sure enough, it wasn't long before the four ships came into view and landed in a semi-protected section of the school grounds.

"Well, guess we head back to the ships and figure out what we do next," Felix sighed.

_**Sector 6: A Beacon of Conflict**_

_**Styra Khai's POV:**_

While the rest of the Sleeping Knights talked on the _Night Fury_, I snuck away. I was bored with all the talking with nothing happening, so I decided to explore Beacon to entertain myself.

I was walking through the halls when a red blur bowled me over. A familiar voice started blurting out apologies over and over.

_For fuck's sake, Ruby._

"Ruby, chill. I'm fine," I sighed, slightly annoyed.

"Eep," she squealed when she heard my tone. "Oh, you're from the Sleeping Knights, right?"

I smirked, nodding. "Mhm, and don't you forget it. I'm Styra Khai. And no, I'm not part of Stella's family. _Thankfully_."

Ruby slightly pulled back at the way I said Stella's name. "I'm guessing you don't like Stella that much…?"

"Like her? She's a fucking monster. Why would I like the cunt that murdered my mother?" I snapped back.

"Eep! I'm sorry for asking!" she squealed again, before running off at speeds that would make even Stella proud and leaving rose petals behind.

_Oh geeze, grow a fucking backbone Ruby._

"You know, talking like that to a 15-year-old is a pretty good way to get in trouble here," came another voice.

I turned to see some older students behind me.

_Let me guess, Pearl, Silver, Red and Lavender? These peoples' names are too easy to guess when they're based on their colours._

Sure enough, the girl who had spoken had whitish-pinkish hair that reminded me of the colour of a pearl. The boy next to her had silver hair, the other boy of the group had red hair and the second girl had lavender-coloured hair. They all wore school uniforms and had weapons on their belts.

"15? Isn't she a bit young for this place then?" I questioned.

"It is true that she got bumped up two years. I'm not exactly sure why, but she certainly is a good fighter, I can't deny that," the pearl-coloured girl said. "And what about you? You're not a student of Beacon, you from one of the other academies?"

"I'm from Mantle, actually," I smirked.

"Geeze, I haven't heard anyone call it Mantle for ages. Not our generation anyway," the silver boy laughed.

"I know right, do Atlesians seriously still call it Mantle?" lavender girl giggled.

_Atlesians… There was Atlas Academy, is the whole kingdom named Atlas now? Ugh, I look so stupid right now._

"Some of us, yeah," I tried to brush it off.

"Heh, I figured if anyone would refuse to call it Mantle anymore it would be the Atlesians," red chuckled.

"Guys, chill. She's a guest, you're all being rude," the first girl sighed. "I apologise for their behaviour. We're Team PSTL, I'm Pearl Coleen, this is Silver Gin, Thomas Piros and Lave Murasakino."

_I fucking knew it._

"I'm Styra Khai, a Sleeping Knight."

"_Sleeping_ knight? What, you've got a whole group of lazy knights?" Silver teased.

"Oh, you wanna fight? Right here, right now, let's fucken go, mate," I growled, igniting my purple lightsabre.

"Big Sis, please don't hurt him…" came the small voice of a 9-year-old Imou.

I looked down to see Imou tugging at my skirt, puppy dog eyes begging me to put my sabre away.

"Ugh," I deactivated the blade, putting it back on my belt.

"_Silver_, control yourself," Pearl scolded.

"Sorry, Pearl, just playing," he chuckled.

There were a few seconds of silence.

"But seriously, do you only become a Knight when you sleep or something?" Silver continued.

My blade flew off my belt, igniting mid-air and cutting a statue in half, before returning to my hand, deactivating, and returning to my belt.

"_Do you want to end up like that?_" I hissed, pointing at the statue whose top half was now on the floor.

Silver shut up and retreated, clearly trying to put Pearl between himself and me.

"Impressive. Not many people can shut him up," Pearl laughed. "Come on, let's go get something to eat, Styra Khai."

_At least Pearl isn't so bad._

_**Stella Khai's POV:**_

I had noticed Styra was missing a few minutes after we made our plans, so I went looking for her.

_Crafty girl, her stealth has always been impressive._

I was just turning a corner when a huge rush of wind bowled me back, rose petals filling my vision. Instinctively, I reached out in the Force. A small yelp was heard as a familiar crimson-tipped girl was dragged back by the invisible force.

_Oh, it's Ruby. Whoops…_

"R-Ruby, I'm sorry," I stuttered.

_Okay really, why do I keep getting nervous around her?_

"Stella! Um… How did you…?"

"Grab you telekinetically? I have a few powers, fairly normal where I'm from," I smirked.

"Oh! So, it's like your Semblance, right?" the innocent girl chirped, smiling brightly.

_Holy crap she's adorable!_

"Semblance?" I inquired, curiously.

"Yeah, everyone has a unique Semblance. Mine's my speed, which you just saw. Weiss has glyphs, Blake can create a shadow clone of herself, and Yang can deal back any damage she takes twice as hard," Ruby explained.

"That's…quite interesting," it was then I realised Ruby didn't know I wasn't from Remnant, and I had likely just blown my cover. "Ah, yeah. Well, then my Semblance would be telekinesis. Pretty cool, huh?"

"Oooh! Can you use your weapon with it?" she eagerly asked.

"Well, outside of retrieving it when I throw it, I don't think I've thought of doing that. You know, I probably could, that's a pretty cool idea," I chuckled.

"Speaking of, what is your weapon? You attacked me with a sword before, does it do anything else?"

"Anything else?"

"Yeah, like Crescent Rose here is a scythe but it's also a customisable high-impact sniper rifle!" she proved her point by unfurling the giant scythe that was almost twice her size, showing off the sniper part of it.

I had to steel myself at the sight of the scythe so as to not break out as I did before. But now that I was looking at the red scythe Ruby had dubbed 'Crescent Rose,' I realised how clever and high-tech the weapon actually was.

"Oh, that's actually awesome! Where'd you get something like that?!"

"I made it. All students at Signal forge their own weapons," Ruby replied smugly.

_She fucking _made_ that!? Oh lord, this girl is amazing._

"So, what about yours?"

I summoned my Black Blade, slightly surprising Ruby as the blue flame engulfed my hand and formed the weapon.

"I guess you could say I forged my own weapons too, my Black Blade, as well as my Rock Cannon, are a part of me. I can summon them at will. It just took a long time to learn how to," I chuckled as Ruby inspected the sword, before I unsummoned it and brought out the huge oversized Rock Cannon, at which Ruby practically swooned the second she saw it.

"Oh my god, I LOVE IT!" she squealed.

_So, she's a weapon fanatic?_

"It is rather badass, wielding this big thing like it's nothing," I chuckled, throwing the huge heavy cannon in the air and catching it as if it was a simple plastic toy. "Though when it comes to badassery, I think you win with that thing."

"Um, I just have one more question," Ruby said, unsure of herself. I gestured for her to go on. "When you attacked me, your face was on fire…and even now, your eyes are glowing bright blue…what's with that?"

_Oh shit, I forgot about my eyes when I get excited or angry…_

"Oh, uh, yeah. The glowing thing just happens whenever I'm happy or angry, not sure why. As for the flame, it ignites when I get serious in a fight," I sighed.

_She's going to know I'm not from Remnant now, isn't she?_

"Whoa… It's like you have multiple Semblances! So cool!" she exclaimed.

_Or…not?_

"Y-Yeah, I guess. Well, anyway, I should probably ask, have you seen Styra? She was the youngest-looking member of our group, she ran off without us noticing," I inquired.

"Oh…Y-Yeah, she uh… I saw her earlier near the cafeteria…" Ruby stuttered.

_Okay, what the hell._

"What did she do," I questioned, knowing instantly that Styra had done something to Ruby.

"N-Nothing! She just said some things and…called you a monster…"

I sighed, seeing the mixture of fear and curiosity on the young girl's face. "She told you I killed her mother, didn't she," Ruby nodded. "Ugh, that girl. Unfortunately, it is true that I killed Savara Rein, but I was in a very dark place at the time."

_Both physically and metaphorically._

"Oh…"

I gave the crimsonette a small smile. "Don't worry, I won't be returning to that place. I overcame my demons. I hope we can be friends, Ruby, despite the uh…less than friendly introduction we had," I chuckled, before saying farewell to the hyper little team leader.

"Well she was adorable," came the familiar voice of our resident Ice Queen.

"Indeed, it's nice to know that even in a world like this, pure souls like hers still exist. Pretty eyes too, haven't seen silver before," I smirked as I walked with Jane.

"Of course you paid attention to that," she teased.

"You can't say shit when you're married to the_ Queen_ of Qeios," I returned serve, giggling.

"Mhm, and you're married to the _King_ of hotness," she grinned.

"There's really no point in denying that. He is pretty damn good looking," I laughed.

We arrived at the food court, taking notice of the various students present. I especially took notice of the people who were similar to the Daughters of Darkness, figuring that Remnant has clearly changed a lot since they left if the Faunus were freely attending a school like Beacon.

"There's our little ninja," Jane pointed over to where Styra was laughing with some students.

Team RWBY was also near them, excluding Ruby herself of course. I smiled at how cheery all these warriors-in-training were.

"…so what do you say? You can come too, Ice Queen," a boy with blonde hair, very casual clothing and a monkey tail was saying to the present members of RWBY.

"Eh? Where am I going? What's happening?" Jane spoke up, seeming both confident yet confused at the same time.

Considering Weiss exclaimed "Hey!" in an annoyed manner at the same time, I figured her nickname was Ice Queen.

The boy turned to us, confused. "Wait, you're Ice Queen too?" he figured.

"Hell yeah I am. I see Weiss is your resident Ice Queen though," Jane realised rather sheepishly.

"Why does everyone keep calling me that!" Weiss complained.

"Guessing you're not a literal Ice Queen," Jane chuckled.

"And you are?" Weiss ignorantly scoffed.

"Yes, actually. Queen Jane of Qeios, former Princess of Arendelle, daughter of Arendelle's original Ice Queen, Elsa, at your service," Jane smirked, using her powers to create her combat armour and sword.

Lots of people looked on in awe at Jane's display of her powers.

Weiss was a little taken aback, but quickly found her voice again. "Chaos? Arendelle? I've never heard of them. Do you have any idea who you're talking to?"

"Not a clue, kid," Jane teased.

_This woman is going to get us in huge trouble,_ I thought with a chuckle.

Weiss stood up indignantly. "I am Weiss Schnee, Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company."

_Schnee… So, this is the family that Lyla tried to kill. I can see why._

"Heiress, I see. So, you're more of an Ice Princess than Queen at the moment. Well, perhaps I can teach you a few things," the Queen smirked, enjoying how riled up the Heiress was getting.

At this point, I stepped in. "Alright, as entertaining as that would be, let's take a step back here. I know the Schnee Dust Company is pretty big around here, so you're a fairly big deal. Well, the Kingdom of Qeios is also a fairly big deal, just not really known by the people of Remnant. We keep to ourselves," I tried to make it seem like Qeios wasn't from a different world, whether that worked or not, I had no idea. Our secret would be revealed when the GA arrived, but until then, we wanted to keep quiet. "Now, Jane's Semblance of Ice powers is pretty strong, so I would very much advise against having a fight with her. She'll freeze you before you can summon any of your glyphs."

Jane glanced over at me, not knowing about Semblances yet. I just gave her a look that said I'd tell her later.

"Anyway," I turned back to where Styra was keeping her head down. "Good to see you're enjoying yourself. Just wanted to make sure you weren't causing trouble," I smirked.

"Yeah whatever," she sighed.

"Just come back for training before the day's over," I finished, leading Jane back out of the food court.

"This place is fun," Jane grinned.

"It probably won't be for long," I sighed.

**!=-{+}-=!**

I woke up in my room on the _Night Fury_ with Felix after spending another day in the Wake trying to get Tarev over his ex.

I immediately sensed an air of discomfort from the people of Vale, so I quickly got dressed and disembarked from the shuttle.

Glancing out over the Kingdom, I saw a huge fleet of ships.

"Mantle. Though, I guess they're called Atlas now. Why would they bring their air fleet to Vale though?" came Xana's voice behind me.

"I'm not sure. It's causing unrest amongst the people though," I scanned the ships until my eyes were set upon an all too familiar sight. I froze.

"Fuck," I swore under my breath.

Xana followed my view, gasping when she saw it.

The huge shape of an _Imperial II_-class Star Destroyer was emerging from the morning fog. A group of Galactic Alliance gunships and X-Wings surrounded the recognisable black-painted ISD.

"They're here…"

I just nodded, the feeling of a headache coming forth.

Atlesian ships and X-Wings flew overhead, three huge Atlesian ships landing at the pads over Beacon Cliff.

"I have to go talk to Ozpin. Stay here," I told Xana, before running into the school and making my way to Beacon Tower.

When I finally got to Ozpin's office, I found another man dressed in white talking with Ozpin. I paused, staying hidden momentarily.

"Oz, you and I both know _why_ I brought those men," the newcomer said in a serious tone.

Ozpin took a sip of coffee, before sighing. "We are in a time of peace. Shows of power like this are just going to give off the wrong impression."

"But if what Qrow said is true then-"

"If what Qrow said is true then we will handle it, tactfully. It's the Vytal Festival, a time to celebrate unity and peace, so I suggest you not scare people by transporting hundreds of soldiers halfway across the continent."

"More like halfway across the galaxy," I stated, making my presence known.

The newcomer turned to me, surprised. Ozpin didn't seem fazed at my sudden appearance.

"Might I ask who you are?" he inquired.

"I guess you might. The name's Stella Khai, leader of the Sleeping Knights, General in the Earth Alliance. And you, my dear friend, appear to have brought an Imperial Star Destroyer with your fleet. Perhaps I should inquire how you came across an ISD on Remnant?" I responded.

"This is General Ironwood of the Atlesian Military. I presume that rather large…eye-sore out there is this Star Destroyer you speak of," Ozpin noted.

"Indeed. It's the _Vestara Khai_, named after one of Caedus' former masters. My mother, who was killed six years ago."

_Since Anakin Solo never died like he was supposed to, I guess he decided to drag my family's name into the dirt instead of his little brother's._

"The _Vestara_ is his flagship. And, I'm not sure if you know this, _General_, but Caedus is dangerous. He's fallen to the Dark Side of the Force. In basic talk, he's the bad guy," I explained.

"I'm not sure where you've gotten your information, girl. That ship is a Galactic Starship, it is named the _Vestara Khai_ but it's the flagship of Colonel Jacen Solo of the Galactic Alliance Guard. We will need the Alliance's help if our intel proves true," Ironwood stated.

I just laughed. "What, Jacen called it a Galactic Starship? Okay, I expected him to do better than that. Sorry, General, but that thing's an _Imperial II_-class Star Destroyer, the same type of ship used by the Galactic Empire almost forty years ago to _terrorise_ the galaxy. As for Jacen, yes, he is a Colonel of the Galactic Alliance, and yes his name is Jacen Solo. But he was apprenticed to Sith Lady Lumiya this year and became Darth Caedus, turning on his own family and friends. Whatever he promised you, the Earth Alliance can match. The only difference is we wouldn't have brought the Second Galactic Civil War to your doorstep. Unfortunately, the enemies of the GA are on their way right now. And that's not including the _Intervention_, _Scarlet Eviscerator_ and _Forever Endeavour_ of the Earth Alliance which are currently above Remnant, just out of sight," I told the General of the predicament that Remnant had just been dragged into.

"I must admit, it's an intimidating ship. The Atlesian fleet alone would have been enough to make people question, however bringing the _Vestara Khai_ and its contingent of Galactic Alliance ships in will make people worried. _That_ is not something we need," Ozpin commented.

Ironwood just looked between us. "I'm just being cautious."

"As am I. Which is why we will continue to train the best Huntsmen and Huntresses we can," Ozpin stated.

"Believe me, I am…" Ironwood grimly noted, turning to walk away. "But ask yourself this; do you honestly believe your children can win a war?"

With that, he left the room.

"I hope they never have to," Ozpin quietly said to himself.

I stood still for a moment, before making a very out-of-place comment. "Well, to be fair, I did my first mission when I was 18. Our youngest at the time was 15," I shrugged.

Ozpin just sighed. "But was your first mission a war?"

"Not exactly…" I paused, realising something. "It was a fight against Aka Redthorne of Remnant, actually. So really, my traumatic first mission is that guy's fault," I pointed at the door where Ironwood had left.

"Well, that certainly is a coincidence," Ozpin noted.

"Yeah… Lachie was a right pain in the arse. I'm guessing his illusions were his Semblance… Yeah that makes sense now. You know, he gave me a vision where he murdered my boyfriend-now-husband and my sister. _That_ was fucking traumatic. So maybe I should go 'thank' Ironwood for that," I stated sarcastically.

I moved to leave the room. "Anyway, we'll try to stay low. Jacen likely knows we betrayed him, if he sees us here it'll be a problem. I'll keep you informed on what's happening on our end of this thing, meanwhile if you have any information about Remnant that we need to know, you should probably tell us."

I gave a wave as I left, passing Glynda Goodwitch on my way out.

_This shit just got a whole lot harder._

**!=-{+}-=!**

**17 ABY; 2054 Earth Time**

"…FELIX…" I screamed.

Silence fell, aside from some whimpers from Amea, who was looking at me in shock. Lachie seemed a bit surprised, but was still grinning. Felix, well…he seemed…

_Crap…_

He had a look of understanding, like he knew I would choose Amea over him but he didn't care. And that hurt like crazy, because it showed just how much he loved me.

"I'm sorry…I'm really sorry…" I sobbed.

"It's okay, Stella. I love you. I'll alw-"

_BANG_

He fell to the ground, the life in his eyes vanishing.

"FELIX!"

Another gunshot and I felt my hands be freed as Lachie shot the chain of the handcuffs. I crawled over to Felix's body, crying harder than I had ever cried in my life.

"Well, that was fun. Until next time, Stella," Lachie smirked, before he vanished into the shadows.

"YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" I yelled.

Soon, I looked over at Amea, who was nearly about to pass out. I scurried over to her and held her in my arms.

"I'm so sorry, Amea-chan…" I sobbed.

"It's okay. This won't be the last time you lose him," she said.

I froze.

…_what?_

I looked down at her. She was smirking, exactly the same way as Lachie.

"This also won't be the last time you lose me," she added, before a bullet came straight through her head, splattering me in blood.

I screamed again.

"Stella," I heard someone call.

**40 ABY; 2077 Earth Time**

"Stella!" it was Felix, and judging by his expression I figured my mind had wandered off.

"Sorry, just thinking about things," I sighed.

"About the fact that Jacen is here?" he inquired.

"That is one of the many things on my mind, yes," I chuckled, resting against him. He immediately put his arms around me protectively.

"Well, Team SMWK are here too. All three of them, turns out the third member happened to decide to re-join her team this year," Felix informed.

"I see. Well, guess it's time to meet Lyla's old crew."

_**Lyla Klal's POV:**_

I groaned as I saw the _Vestara Khai_ towards the other edge of Vale.

_Hello, Jacen…_

"Kurome," I heard Sino call.

I turned to her and saw her gesturing towards a group of three elder ladies accompanied by a contingent of droids.

"That's them?" I asked. Sino nodded. I took a deep breath. "Okay… Here goes nothing."

I walked over to the team. As I got closer, I realised all three of them looked familiar, though I couldn't place where I had seen them before.

_I guess they really are my team._

"Excuse me…" I said as I approached them.

All three of them turned to me, and I heard a gasp from the pink-haired woman.

"Would you happen to be Team SWMK?"

The taller woman with long sky-blue hair glanced at the man, who had long purple hair.

"We haven't gone by that name in over sixty years, how do you even know it?" she inquired.

"Well, my name's Lyla Klal…but I think I used to go by a different name. Kurome Beranil," I cautiously stated.

She froze, so did the man.

"K-Kurome?!" he exclaimed.

"What do you mean, you think?" the woman demanded, potentially thinking I was trying to mess with them.

"Well, I have no memory of Remnant. I have no memory of my life before I was 18. Just recently I met with some people from Remnant who did have memories of it, they mentioned Mantle sent people off-world in prison capsules, erasing their memories. Considering any time they mentioned anything about Kurome, it sounded familiar, and the year I was discovered by the Nightsisters matches up with when Kurome was exiled, we deduced that I most likely am Kurome Beranil," I explained to them.

"Hang on, if that were true, you should be as old as us. You look far younger," the purple-haired man stated.

"Ah, yeah… That's a long story. Basically, I was killed, then revived twenty-one years later. I technically am 81, but physically I'm only 60," I nodded.

"Prove it," finally, the pink-haired woman spoke.

"I'm sorry?"

"Prove that you are Kurome Beranil."

I thought for a moment, trying to figure out how to prove it, until I remembered my weapon.

"I think I have just the thing to do that, follow me," I said.

I led them back to the _Kesh Wanderer_, going into my quarters for a moment and re-emerging a second later with the old sword thing.

All three of them looked at the weapon in awe, clearly recognising it.

"You…you kept Twisted Ghoul… It really is you…" the pink-haired woman quietly exclaimed, tears pricking her eyes. "Kuro!" she rushed forward, putting her arms around me, crying.

_Twisted Ghoul… Of course, that's what it was called… I remember that now…_

"Holy crap… You're actually alive… You friggin' came back to us alive…" the blue-haired woman slowly smiled, tears also dropping down her cheeks.

"I'm guessing you don't remember our names though," the man noted.

I shook my head.

"Well, I'm Maru Kobayashi," he smiled.

"Skyler Sanchin, leader of Team SMWK," the blue woman added.

"Willow Keiran, your best friend," the woman still hugging me finished.

_Willow… Oh my god… How could I forget her…_

**24 BBY; 2012 Earth Time**

"Kuro, cover me," Willow called out as she rushed into the horde of Grimm, Ember Blood getting unsheathed. The red katana / machine-gun shot a Beowolf in the face before coming down and cutting the head of another off.

I turned Twisted Ghoul into its assault rifle form, shooting another three Beowolves that were targeting my best friend.

Willow swung in a pattern, creating a huge barrier around her of temporally displaced attacks. Multiple Grimm tried to get near her but were cut to pieces by her Semblance of Delayed Effect.

The whistling of wind caught my ear as Skyler's Semblance of Wind Manipulation sent an Ursa past me into Willow's barrier. The spear / semi-auto sniper rifle known as Pointed Wrath sent shot after shot into the heads of the Grimm surrounding its wielder as Skyler rotated on the spot.

She sent another blast of her Semblance towards where Maru was holding off a rather large Ursa using Tenor Talon, his cutlass / semi-auto shotgun. Maru's Semblance was Water Manipulation, which he used in combination with Skyler's wind and created a water twister which pulled the Ursa up into the air. Maru then shot it with Tenor Talon, killing the giant beast.

Putting Twisted Ghoul back in its sword form, I cut a Beowolf's arms off as it got close to me, spinning until my weapon was resting across my back, pointed at the Grimm. I pulled the trigger, riddling it with fire dust.

I panted, bringing my heart rate down from the fight as my teammates sheathed their weapons. I followed suit, folding Twisted Ghoul up and placing it on my back.

"Mission complete," Skyler smirked, holding up a victory sign with her fingers.

"Team SMWK strikes again," Maru chuckled.

"Nice job there, Kuro," Skyler added.

"Thanks, Sky. Grimm are a pretty good way to take out frustrations," I sighed.

"Talking to people also works," Maru chimed in.

"Maru, you know social interactions are my weakness," I complained.

"Come on Maru, just because Kuro is socially inept, doesn't mean you can make fun of her," Willow defended.

"I know, I know," the 16-year-old pirate laughed, putting his hands up in surrender.

We made our way back to Atlas Academy, laughing and joking along the way.

I quickly noticed a group of Faunus who seemed to be from the mines, though they appeared to be hiding.

"Oi, don't you lot belong in the mines?" Skyler called out teasingly.

"Fuck you," one of them called back.

Skyler glanced back at me, smirking.

I took out Twisted Ghoul once more, shooting in their general direction and causing them to scatter.

The others laughed. "That'll teach 'em," I smirked.

**22 ABY; 2014 Earth Time**

I stood near the back of the party, refusing to socialise while the rest of my team hung out. It was a party hosted by the Schnee Dust Company, so I didn't really care much. I was just here because Skyler dragged me along.

While I was quietly taking a sip of my (non-alcoholic, I am only 18) drink, a certain someone brushed past me.

Well, more like pushed past and faked being tripped.

I groaned at the antics of the 14-year-old SDC Heir.

"Hey! Kurome tripped me!" he whined, giving me a sneaky wink.

Security was suddenly focused on me.

_My Semblance is supposed to work the other way damnit, I'm not even sure if I can use it to make them believe me telling the truth._

I quickly realised though that that was the exact reason the spoilt brat was trying to accuse me. He had never really liked me, and he was one of the few people who knew my Semblance.

_Eh, worth a try anyway._

"Actually, I did nothing. He's lying," I quietly stated, cursing my social ineptitude for the lack of volume in the way I spoke.

I used my Semblance to try to make the guards believe me over him.

Alas, as I expected, my Semblance only worked the other way. If I was knowingly telling the truth, Trickery would do nothing. It was only effective at making people believe lies.

"Miss Beranil, please follow us outside," one of the guards stated.

"Oh fuck off," I groaned, getting annoyed.

It was common knowledge that I had been more violent recently. Of course, not many people knew how much I used my Semblance of Trickery to mess with them, but I still had a reputation by now.

And this kid was just trying to get that violent streak to show.

_Well, it's working._

Using my training as a Huntress, I leapt upwards, pushing myself off the wall and punching the Schnee boy hard in the face. He stumbled back and I brought my other hand in with an uppercut to his gut.

My hands wrapped around his neck, trying to choke him.

Of course, I was pulled off and dragged outside pretty quickly. One look at Willow's face on the way out made me realise how badly I had just fucked up.

_Ah, crap._

_**Sector 7: Knights Verse Huntsmen**_

**40 ABY; 2077 Earth Time**

Various memories flowed back into my mind. The past was still mostly a grey area, but not all of it now that my old team was standing in front of me.

"I know you said you were 60, but damn you still look pretty good for your age, Kuro," Skyler smirked.

"Heh, thanks Sky," I chuckled.

"And long hair suits you, by the way," Maru added.

"It really does, long-haired Kuro is pretty," Willow giggled.

"So, what have you been doing out in the galaxy?" Skyler asked.

"Now that's a story and a half. Well, I was discovered by a group of witches called the Nightsisters and got trained as a Sith assassin. A few years later I went out to try to take down a Galactic Empire, as well as a certain group calling themselves the Virtcast. They may or may not be the parents of the group I'm with now," I chuckled at their reactions to that. "Well, the Virtcast killed me eventually, cut me in half pretty much. About twenty-one years later, some omnipotent being calling himself the Blooded Reaper brought me back to life with all the Virtcast's previous enemies for a second attempt at killing them. Well, this time I grew pretty close with my companion, a Sith girl named Vestara Khai. In the end, I ran away with her. We lived together for another twenty-one years, even having a daughter together. Eventually though, our past caught up with us. A guy named Luke Nawai called us out, recruited us to kill the Sleeping Knights. What we didn't know was the Knights were the Virtcast's kids. We were given mercy, but Vestara didn't survive. After that, I agreed to join the Sleeping Knights and clear my name of the crimes I had committed before. Ever since, we've dealt with an invasion from a different galaxy and now the current Galactic Civil War, which is what brought us here," I recalled all the events that happened between my awakening and now as simply as I could.

"Damn, our girl has more experience than us. And we're older!" Maru laughed.

"You have a daughter!?" Willow commented.

"Yeah, she's here too. Probably still asleep though."

"Actually no, I'm completely awake," Styra's strongly Arendellian-accented voice from the doorway caught my attention.

"Styra, good morning. You probably figured it out already, but it seems this is Team SMWK, my old team," I smiled warmly.

"Yeah, I heard. So, this means I would have an Aura and Semblance, right?" Styra said happily.

"Most likely, kid. You want someone to help you unlock them?" the purple pirate grinned.

"From an old geezer like you?" Styra teased.

"Hey, I may be old, but don't underestimate my experience. I could still beat your ass right here if I wanted to," he playfully replied.

I tried to stifle a laugh, but failed when Willow's muffled giggles reached my ears too.

"I would love to see you try, a former Jedi Padawan-now Sleeping Knight against an old Huntsman, I think Styra has the advantage here. Like, massively," I told him.

"Challenge accepted," Maru smirked.

"Oh okay, this should be good," Skyler laughed.

"Styra, a lightsabre would be no fair, so take this," I tossed Twisted Ghoul over to her.

"You don't even know how to use this old thing, how am I supposed to?" she questioned.

Willow smiled. "It's already in its sword-form, so basic fighting should be fine. I'll be sure to show Kuro how it works again though soon, so you should join us then."

"Honestly, maybe Styra should just have Twisted Ghoul. We'll have to reforge it if you're to use it against Sith, but you'll probably pick it up easier than I would, I've spent years training with a lightsabre," I said, pulling my sabre-staff out and igniting the blue blades to show my team.

They stared at the high-tech weapon in awe, even more impressed when I deactivated one side and twirled the blade around as I normally would in battle, using moves from one of the lightsabre forms.

Not wanting to be left out of the spotlight, Styra's purple lightsabre ignited as well.

"Okay, I vote you two have a duel after Styra beats Maru," Willow grinned.

Maru gave her a playful glare, and Skyler laughed. "Kurome comes back for five minutes and we're already acting like kids again."

"Well, we gotta make up for lost time," I smirked.

Maru and Styra led the rest of us out of the ship as Styra tossed her lightsabre to me, getting herself used to the unusually shaped weapon that was Twisted Ghoul.

Skyler held me back for a second, curiosity in her eyes.

"In your story, you mentioned you had an affair with a girl named Vestara Khai… Does she have anything to do with the Galactic Starship, _Vestara Khai_, out there?" she pointed to the Star Destroyer.

I sighed, having not thought about them knowing the name of the ISD.

"That ship, which by the way is called a Star Destroyer, not a Galactic Starship, was named after a Vestara Khai, it is true. One thing I left out of my story though was the amount of time travel that occurred. The Vestara that I was married to was essentially a clone of someone who wasn't even born until about thirteen years ago. So, no, that ship isn't named after my Vestara. There was another Vestara Khai, she was a part of the Virtcast. She was the mother of the leader of the Sleeping Knights, Stella Khai," I explained.

"Time...travel…? You're joking, right?" she deadpanned.

I shook my head. "Unfortunately, no. The Virtcast used time travel a lot, far more than they should have to be perfectly honest. It's why my past is a lot more confusing than the way I explained it."

"Seems you've had an eventful life," she chuckled.

"That's one way to put it."

We stood at the foot of the ramp of the _Kesh Wanderer_, watching as Willow gave Styra a quick lesson on Aura, as well as Twisted Ghoul.

"So, as a Sleeping Knight, what do you do exactly? Aside from apparently saving the galaxy from alien invasions," Skyler noted.

"Kill bad guys. That's pretty much it," I laughed.

"Holy shit, your job is to _kill_ people? You've really changed, Kurome," she said, surprised.

"Really? Didn't I get exiled for trying to kill a Schnee? I also recall being told I threatened to kill a Faunus at one stage."

"At one stage? Girl, you hated the Faunus as much as anyone in Atlas at that time. There were a lot more incidents than one," she snickered. "But, as violent as you were, you never killed anyone. That incident with Weiss Schnee's grandfather was a one-off."

I sensed surprise from Maru and Willow and looked back over to them, only to see the four Daughters of Darkness casually walking past them towards us.

"Lyla, the GA is posting guards around the school. I just thought I'd let you know to be careful, if they spot you or Styra they'll likely figure out the Knights are here. Queen Jane and Queen Sonia are already going to find Stella to find out if there is anywhere else to hide the ships," Xana stated.

"Thank you, Xana. We'll be careful," I smiled at the tiger Faunus.

"And what's going on here? Showing your old team what a Jedi can do?" Jae chuckled, looking back at Styra.

"Pretty much. Feel free to stick around," I said amusedly.

Skyler, Maru and Willow stared at me, shock clear on their faces.

"Y-You… T-They… Kurome, you're friends with _Faunus_?!" Skyler exclaimed.

Xana hissed at the woman.

"No don't get me wrong, we have no problem with Faunus these days, we're just surprised. Kuro was the sort of person who would shoot at a Faunus to scare them just for the fun of it," Skyler covered.

"And I've since grown up on a different world around Nekos, Kitsunes and Inus. All of which are essentially Faunus. Honestly, I hold no racist intentions towards them as Lyla Klal. Truthfully, these girls are the ones who told me about my old life as Kurome," I explained.

"Hell, my best friend, Lauren is part-Inu," Styra added. "Now, Maru, you ready to face defeat?" she smirked.

Bringing himself out of his shock, he looked back at the young 23-year-old Arendellian, grinning.

"Bring it."

Styra approached the old man, Twisted Ghoul raised and ready to attack. When she got close, she struck fast. Maru barely pushed the large sword aside, twirling around to try to bring Tenor Talon across Styra's chest. She blocked, kicking off the ground and backflipping, her foot catching Maru on the jaw and causing him to stumble backwards.

Skyler pulled out a communication device, having a look at what seemed to be a health bar for Maru.

_Right, it's his Aura level. That's a thing they can track._

His Aura had barely dropped from the hit, which didn't surprise me. I used the Force to sense Styra's state, noting she had successfully brought up her Aura thanks to Willow's advice. She hadn't taken any damage to it yet.

Maru rushed at Styra, shooting Tenor Talon's semi-auto shotgun form at the girl. She blocked a lot of the incoming projectiles, but a few got past her defences and damaged her Aura, severely.

Blocking a slice from Maru, Styra smirked.

"Not bad, old man. But I'm barely even trying," she taunted.

"Oh really? Letting your Aura deplete is always a bad idea, intentional or not. Never underestimate your enemy," he grinned, moving to shoot her in the face while their blades were locked. Styra sensed the incoming attack, ducking and tripping the pirate, bringing Twisted Ghoul down on top of him. He managed to block it once more, but wasn't expecting Styra to flip over him and, using the Force, picked him up, throwing him across the field. Maru came to a crashing halt against the hull of the _Night Slicer_.

"As I said, I wasn't even trying," Styra grinned as I watched Maru's Aura go down to about 35% from the single hit.

"Fuck, alright, I see your point now," he groaned.

Not one to accept defeat so easily, he surprised Styra by rushing back in at full speed. The young girl just shrugged, reaching out her hand. Streaks of electricity erupted from her fingers, hitting Maru and causing him to tumble mid-stride.

His Aura quickly dipped into the red.

"And Styra wins," Skyler called. "If she can do that, a fight with someone else of her skill should be interesting," she looked at me with a smirk.

I tossed Styra's lightsabre back to her, igniting my own as I stepped forward.

"Ready for round 2, Styra?"

"Always am."

Without even a moment of hesitation, I rushed forward, enhancing my speed with the Force. Styra's sabre ignited at the last second, blocking mine. Styra jumped over my head, attempting to slice at my back. I forced her blade aside and kicked her in the stomach, using my free hand to blast her back with the Force. I immediately dashed at her, aiming to run my sabre through her shoulder. A purple blur pushed it away at the last second, but I still shoulder-charged her. Without faltering for even a second, my blade came back around. She blocked it, but the force of the hit pushed her back.

A Force push sent me backwards, but I landed perfectly, already in position to leap back at Styra. She sent Force Lightning at me, but I blocked it on my sabre. I continued to block it as I slowly approached her. When I was about a metre from her, I activated the second blade of my sabre-staff, ducking and letting the lightning go past me, bringing the new blade up to hit her from underneath. She blocked it but one blade being pushed aside brought the other dangerously close to her before she could block that too.

Adrenalin rushing through my veins from what was probably the hardest fight I had fought in years, I moved her blade to the side and used the hilt of my sabre to hit Styra in the face, bringing the second blade down at her neck, stopping mere millimetres away from it.

"I win," I smirked.

I deactivated the blades, putting the sabre back on my belt.

"Fuck… That was intense…" Styra panted.

"That's why I'm the Master and you're the Apprentice. That, and the fact that I'm your mother," I chuckled.

"That was… Damn, I don't think any of us could match that," Willow stated, mouth agape in shock.

Clapping drew my attention to some new spectators, Stella and Felix had arrived partway through the fight.

"Not bad, Styra. You're well on your way to becoming a fully-fledged Knight," Stella commented.

Styra just groaned at the appearance of her actual Master.

"Stella, I'm assuming you went to talk to Ozpin about why Atlas seem to have teamed up with the GA?" I enquired.

"Indeed. General Ironwood of the Atlesian military seemed less than pleased about the things I had to say, but hey. It's too late to avoid war now. The Jedi Coalition is only a week away from Remnant, the Confederation a bit behind them. Sonia, Jane and Savara decided to call back home, so there's an Earth Alliance fleet on its way, the units led by the _Night Fury Guardian_, _Heart of Qeios_ and _Sword of Arendelle_ to be precise. Our goal is to wedge our fleet between Remnant and the enemies, hopefully keeping any reinforcements from the planet while we focus on driving the troops already here off," she explained.

"It really is turning to a four-way war," I sighed.

"Seems that way. Our forces are the only ones with the intention of letting Remnant remain in peace, the others all see Remnant as a chance for new allies in the war, even the Jedi."

"War? Oh god, you guys brought your war to Remnant?" Skyler groaned.

"Hey, we didn't bring it. The Galactic Alliance are the ones who decided to venture out to Remnant, it's their fault for letting the location slip to the Jedi Coalition and the Confederation. Really, blame _Colonel Solo_ for what's about to happen," Stella defended.

"Seems like you know the Colonel personally," Maru commented.

"As a matter of fact, Jacen was one of my best friends in the Jedi Order. Even after we split from the Order, we were pretty close with the Solo siblings. Unfortunately, the temptation of the Dark Side took Jacen and now he's Darth Caedus," Stella informed Team SMWK.

"Yeesh, this doesn't seem like a great situation," Willow noted.

"You have no idea," I sighed.

_**Kae Tamura's POV:**_

**41 ABY; 2078 Earth Time**

"_Divii Exteortia Lagotum_," water gushed out from Yuko's outstretched hand, converging around the training dummy. "_Relesser strengthu_," the power erupted in an impressive explosion of water, destroying the dummy.

"Good work, Yuko-chan. I'm impressed, you worked your butt off these past months and now, I think you're about ready," I smiled at my childhood friend.

She took a deep breath, panting a little, before smiling. "Thanks, Kae-chan. You're a good teacher."

"I think it's more the fact that you're obsessed with magic," I laughed.

"Fair point," she giggled.

She sat down next to me as I pulled out my commlink.

_Time to check on Aki-chan…_

The familiar red-haired girl appeared in the hologram.

"Kae! How's Yuko-chan's training been going?" she smiled, though I could see that she was exhausted.

"She's proven to be strong; I think we might be able to come help you now," I replied.

"Oh, thank god. Things are…less than ideal here on Remnant. When we arrived a few months ago we were met by resistance from not only the GA and the Jedi, but the Earth Alliance as well. The cruiser I was assigned to was destroyed by the _Q.S.S. Heart of Qeios_ not long ago, I escaped to the planet but… This world has its own versions of demon beasts. My escape pod was swarmed, the only reason I survived was because some locals rescued me…but they weren't alone. The leader of the Sleeping Knights was with them. Honestly… My original plan was to run but…I'm becoming less and less sure of if I want to keep fighting for the Confederation. Khai-san explained the Earth Alliance's intentions… I'll probably join them," Aki explained.

"Very well. My uncle has a ship I can borrow, I'm close with one of his pals too. He's willing to give us a ride, so we'll be there to help you very soon. Stay alive, Aki," I told her.

"Likewise to you, Kae, Yuko," she was interrupted by someone telling her they had to go, speaking English. "See you soon," the transmission ended.

I looked to Yuko. "I have to help her, you know that. So, will I be joined by The Winter Mage?" I smirked.

"You know it, my Blue Lord," she grinned.

**AND. WE. ARE. DONE! The end of Episode X, but it's only the beginning of the War of Remnant trilogy. (Yes I made that up on the spot just now.)**

**So, four-way war brought to the world of Remnant, our two chuunibyous are on their way to join, and I suck at writing Ruby Rose's personality. (Seriously, she's impossible to write XD)**

**And oh shit, Lyla is an Atlesian! XD**

**I'm impressed I managed to finish this so quickly, I expected it to take at least until 2020. Anyway, see you next time, guys!**

**-Night Fury Warrior  
2019 Caster's Network**


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